This tutorial will show you how to use the names()
, colnames()
, and dimnames()
functions to get the column names of an object in R. Do not hurry; we will start right now.
The names(), colnames(), dimnames() function
We have other articles discussing the names(), colnames(), and dimnames() functions. If you are confused, please look at the previous articles to recall your knowledge. This article will only focus on how to use functions to get column names.
Get column names in R
Use the names()
function to get column names
It is quick and simple to get column names using the names()
function. In this example, we will take an example showing how to use the function to get the data frame’s column names
Code:
# Create vectors for a data frame Name <- c("John", "David", "Mary", "Thomas", "Susan", "Emily") Age <- c(22, 17, 41, 35, 18, 38) Gender <- c("Male", "Male", "Female", "Male", "Female", "Female") # Create a data frame from the vectors df <- data.frame(Name, Age, Gender) # Get column names of the data frame colName <- names(df) cat("Column names of the data frame are:\n") cat(colName)
Result:
Column names of the data frame are:
Name Age Gender
Use the colnames()
function to get column names
Another way to get the same result is using the colnames()
function. The following example will show you how to do that.
Code:
# Create vectors for a data frame Name <- c("John", "David", "Mary", "Thomas", "Susan", "Emily") Age <- c(22, 17, 41, 35, 18, 38) Gender <- c("Male", "Male", "Female", "Male", "Female", "Female") # Create a data frame from the vectors df <- data.frame(Name, Age, Gender) # Get column names of the data frame colName <- colnames(df) cat("Column names of the data frame are:\n") cat(colName)
Result:
Column names of the data frame are:
Name Age Gender
Use the dimnames()
function to get column names
The dimnames()
function returns a list of the object’s dimensions, including row and column names. Row names are stored in the first index of the list, and the column names are in the second index.
Code:
# Create vectors for a data frame Name <- c("John", "David", "Mary", "Thomas", "Susan", "Emily") Age <- c(22, 17, 41, 35, 18, 38) Gender <- c("Male", "Male", "Female", "Male", "Female", "Female") # Create a data frame from the vectors df <- data.frame(Name, Age, Gender) # Get column names of the data frame dimName <- dimnames(df) cat("The dimensions of the data frame are:\n") print(dimName) cat("The column names of the data frame are:\n") print(dimName[2])
Result:
The dimensions of the data frame are:
[[1]]
[1] "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6"
[[2]]
[1] "Name" "Age" "Gender"
The column names of the data frame are:
[[1]]
[1] "Name" "Age" "Gender"
Summary
In summary, the names()
, colnames()
, and dimnames()
functions can be used to get the column names of an object, like a data frame. We strongly recommend using the names()
and colnames()
to get the column names. But if you want to look at both rows and columns of the object, the dimnames()
function will be more advantageous.
Maybe you are interested:
- How To Merge By Two Columns In R
- How To Merge By Multiple Columns In R
- ncol in R: Count the number of the columns in the R object

My name is Robert Collier. I graduated in IT at HUST university. My interest is learning programming languages; my strengths are Python, C, C++, and Machine Learning/Deep Learning/NLP. I will share all the knowledge I have through my articles. Hope you like them.
Name of the university: HUST
Major: IT
Programming Languages: Python, C, C++, Machine Learning/Deep Learning/NLP