Chapter 6 – Working with Column Structures

In this chapter, we will continue to work on the tidy approach, but this time, instead of working on the structure of the entire dataset, we will work on columns that may not be tidy, either because they contain multiple variables (where there should only be one), or because multiple columns contain the same variable.

For those of you taking Sociology 1205, this chapter covers the data wrangling module for unit 6. You will find the tutorial and exercise scripts in your R Studio Cloud environment.

This will be our last module focused on the tidyr package.

We have already explored the conceptual aspects of the tidy approach in the previous unit’s first video. If you need a refresher, please go back to chapter 5. Otherwise, the tutorial videos below examine how to reshape the structure of columns.

The mechanics of splitting and joining columns are not very complicated, so in this case, we will work three examples for each.

Part 1 – Example 1

Part 2 – Example 2

Part 3 – Example 3

Before moving on to the next chapter or the exercise (for those of you in Sociology 1205), check your understanding with the quiz below.