Example of using dput()
Using the iris dataset, which is handily included into R, we can see how dput() works:
data(iris)
head(iris)
Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
1 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 setosa
2 4.9 3.0 1.4 0.2 setosa
3 4.7 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa
4 4.6 3.1 1.5 0.2 setosa
5 5.0 3.6 1.4 0.2 setosa
6 5.4 3.9 1.7 0.4 setosa
Now we can get the whole dataset using dput(iris). In most situations, a whole dataset is unnecessary to provide for a Stackoverflow question, as a few lines of the relevant variables suffice as a working data example.
Two things come in handy: The head() function outputs only the first six rows of a dataframe/matrix. Also, the indexing in R (via brackets) allows you to select only specific columns.
Therefore, we can restrict the output of dput() using a combination of these two:
dput(head(iris[, c(1, 3)]))
structure(list(Sepal.Length = c(5.1, 4.9, 4.7, 4.6, 5, 5.4),
Petal.Length = c(1.4, 1.4, 1.3, 1.5, 1.4, 1.7)), .Names = c("Sepal.Length",
"Petal.Length"), row.names = c(NA, 6L), class = "data.frame")
will give us the code to reproduce the first (up to) six rows of column 1 and 3 of the iris dataset.
df <- structure(list(Sepal.Length = c(5.1, 4.9, 4.7, 4.6, 5, 5.4),
Petal.Length = c(1.4, 1.4, 1.3, 1.5, 1.4, 1.7)), .Names = c("Sepal.Length",
"Petal.Length"), row.names = c(NA, 6L), class = "data.frame")
> df
Sepal.Length Petal.Length
1 5.1 1.4
2 4.9 1.4
3 4.7 1.3
4 4.6 1.5
5 5.0 1.4
6 5.4 1.7
If the first rows do not suffice, we can skip using head() and rely on indexing only:
dput(iris[1:20, c(1, 3)])
structure(list(Sepal.Length = c(5.1, 4.9, 4.7, 4.6, 5, 5.4, 4.6,
5, 4.4, 4.9, 5.4, 4.8, 4.8, 4.3, 5.8, 5.7, 5.4, 5.1, 5.7, 5.1
), Petal.Length = c(1.4, 1.4, 1.3, 1.5, 1.4, 1.7, 1.4, 1.5, 1.4,
1.5, 1.5, 1.6, 1.4, 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.3, 1.4, 1.7, 1.5)), .Names = c("Sepal.Length",
"Petal.Length"), row.names = c(NA, 20L), class = "data.frame")
will give us the the first twenty rows:
df <- structure(list(Sepal.Length = c(5.1, 4.9, 4.7, 4.6, 5, 5.4, 4.6,
5, 4.4, 4.9, 5.4, 4.8, 4.8, 4.3, 5.8, 5.7, 5.4, 5.1, 5.7, 5.1
), Petal.Length = c(1.4, 1.4, 1.3, 1.5, 1.4, 1.7, 1.4, 1.5, 1.4,
1.5, 1.5, 1.6, 1.4, 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.3, 1.4, 1.7, 1.5)), .Names = c("Sepal.Length",
"Petal.Length"), row.names = c(NA, 20L), class = "data.frame")
> df
Sepal.Length Petal.Length
1 5.1 1.4
2 4.9 1.4
3 4.7 1.3
4 4.6 1.5
5 5.0 1.4
6 5.4 1.7
7 4.6 1.4
8 5.0 1.5
9 4.4 1.4
10 4.9 1.5
11 5.4 1.5
12 4.8 1.6
13 4.8 1.4
14 4.3 1.1
15 5.8 1.2
16 5.7 1.5
17 5.4 1.3
18 5.1 1.4
19 5.7 1.7
20 5.1 1.5