How to Use the drop Function in R (With Examples)


The drop() function in base R can be used to delete the dimensions of an array or matrix that only have one level.

The following examples show how to use this function in practice.

Example 1: Use drop() to Delete Dimensions with One Level in Array

Suppose we have the following 3-dimensional array in R:

#create 3-dimensional array
my_array <- c(1:10)
dim(my_array ) <- c(1,2,5)

#view array
my_array

, , 1

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    1    2

, , 2

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    3    4

, , 3

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    5    6

, , 4

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    7    8

, , 5

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    9   10

We can use the drop() function to drop the dimension that only has one level in the array:

#drop dimensions with only one level
new_array <- drop(my_array)

#view new array
new_array

     [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5]
[1,]    1    3    5    7    9
[2,]    2    4    6    8   10

Notice that the dimension with only one level has been dropped.

We can use the dim() function to view the new dimensions:

#view dimensions of new array
dim(new_array)

[1] 2 5

We can see that the new array only has two dimensions.

Example 2: Use drop() to Delete Dimensions with One Level in Matrix

Suppose we have the following matrix with seven columns and one row in R:

#create matrix
my_matrix <- matrix(1:7, ncol=7)

#view matrix
my_matrix

     [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7]
[1,]    1    2    3    4    5    6    7

#view dimensions of matrix
dim(my_matrix)

[1] 1 7

We can use the drop() function to drop the dimension that only has one level in the matrix:

#drop dimensions with only one level
new_matrix <- drop(my_matrix)

#view new matrix
new_matrix

[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Notice that the dimension with only one level has been dropped.

The matrix has effectively been converted to a vector.

If we use the dim() function to view the dimensions, it will return NULL since the new object is no longer a matrix with two dimensions:

#view dimensions of new matrix
dim(new_matrix)

NULL

Instead, we can use length() to display the length of the vector:

#view length
length(new_matrix)

[1] 7

We can see that our vector has 7 elements in it.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in R:

How to Use the cut() Function in R
How to Use n() Function in R
How to Use nchar() Function in R

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