How to rename a single column in a data frame in R?

Use the names() function and find the existing column name:

df <- data.frame(oldName = 1:5, otherCol = 6:10)

names(df)[names(df) == "oldName"] <- "newName"

This changes the column oldName to newName while leaving all other columns unchanged.

Using dplyr
The dplyr package offers a convenient pipe-friendly approach:

library(dplyr)

df <- df %>%
  rename(newName = oldName)

Here, newName = oldName clarifies exactly which column you’re renaming.

Pro Tips

• Always confirm the original column name is spelled correctly, or it won’t be found.
• Verify your data frame structure with str(df) or colnames(df) afterward to ensure the rename succeeded.

Further Learning
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• Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions
• Grokking Data Structures & Algorithms for Coding Interviews

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