This tutorial describes how to reorder (i.e., sort) rows, in your data table, by the value of one or more columns (i.e., variables).

You will learn how to easily:

Sort a data frame rows in ascending order (from low to high) using the R function arrange() [dplyr package]

Sort rows in descending order (from high to low) using arrange() in combination with the function desc() [dplyrpackage]

library(tidyverse)

my_data <- as_tibble(iris)

my_data

Arrange rows

The dplyr function arrange() can be used to reorder (or sort) rows by one or more variables.

Reorder rows by Sepal.Length in ascending order

my_data %>% arrange(Sepal.Length)

Reorder rows by Sepal.Length in descending order. Use the function desc():

my_data %>% arrange(desc(Sepal.Length))

Instead of using the function desc(), you can prepend the sorting variable by a minus sign to indicate descending order, as follow.

arrange(my_data, -Sepal.Length)

Reorder rows by multiple variables: Sepal.Length and Sepal.width

my_data %>% arrange(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width)

如果数据包含缺失值，它们总是在最后出现。