Sorting Data in R

To sort a data frame in R, use the order( ) function. By default, sorting is ASCENDING. Prepend the sorting variable by a minus sign to indicate DESCENDING order. Here are some examples.

# sorting examples using the mtcars dataset
attach(mtcars)

# sort by mpg
newdata <- mtcars[order(mpg),]

# sort by mpg and cyl
newdata <- mtcars[order(mpg, cyl),]

#sort by mpg (ascending) and cyl (descending)
newdata <- mtcars[order(mpg, -cyl),]

detach(mtcars)

To practice, try this sorting exercise with the order() function.

This content is taken from statmethods.net.