rbind error: numbers of columns of arguments do not match

If you are having this rbind error “numbers of columns of arguments do not match”, there might be a solution to this problem. It is caused by different column names in data frames. The good news is that there is a quick solution to that.

Here are two data frames. The second one has a column that the first does not.

df1 <- data.frame(
  agent = as.character(c("David", "David", "David", "Kate", "Kate", "Alma", "Alma")),
  manager = as.character(c("Lisa", "Monica", "Karl", "Kianna", "Luna", "Kaylin", "Georgia"))
)

df2 <- data.frame(
  agent = as.character(c("David", "David", "David", "Kate", "Kate", "Alma", "Alma")),
  manager = as.character(c("Lisa", "Monica", "Karl", "Kianna", "Luna", "Kaylin", "Georgia")),
  team = as.character(c("Sales", "Sales", "Sales", "Billing", "Sales", "Sales", "Sales"))
)

After appending them by using rbind, I’m getting an error “numbers of columns of arguments do not match”.

rbind(df1, df2)
#Error in rbind(deparse.level, ...) : 
#  numbers of columns of arguments do not match

The solution of rbind error

If it is not a problem with your data, and you want to append those data frames, then try to use bind_rows from the dplyr package.

bind_rows(df1, df2)
#   agent manager    team
#1  David    Lisa      NA
#2  David  Monica      NA
#3  David    Karl      NA
#4   Kate  Kianna      NA
#5   Kate    Luna      NA
#6   Alma  Kaylin      NA
#7   Alma Georgia      NA
#8  David    Lisa   Sales
#9  David  Monica   Sales
#10 David    Karl   Sales
#11  Kate  Kianna Billing
#12  Kate    Luna   Sales
#13  Alma  Kaylin   Sales
#14  Alma Georgia   Sales

As you can see, the problem is solved. For the data frame that does not contain a specific column appears NA values.

Check out my favorite RStudio tips and tricks. For example, how to quickly view a data frame from R script.

If you are new to R but experienced in Excel, then it might be useful to take a look at the ideas on how to switch from Excel to R.