R: Sort Data Frame Using row.names Attribute

You can use the following two methods to sort a data frame in R by using the row.names attribute:

Method 1: Sort Using Character row.names

df[order(row.names(df)), ]

Method 2: Sort Using Numeric row.names

df[order(as.numeric(row.names(df))), ]

The following examples shows how to use each method in practice.

Example 1: Sort Data Frame Using Character row.names

Suppose we have the following data frame in R:

#create data frame
df <- data.frame(position=c('G', 'G', 'F', 'F', 'C'),
                 points=c(99, 90, 86, 88, 95),
                 assists=c(33, 28, 31, 39, 34),
                 rebounds=c(30, 28, 24, 24, 28))

#set row names of data frame
row.names(df) <- c('A', 'C', 'E', 'D', 'B')

#view data frame
df

  position points assists rebounds
A        G     99      33       30
C        G     90      28       28
E        F     86      31       24
D        F     88      39       24
B        C     95      34       28

We can use the following syntax to sort the rows of the data frame alphabetically using the row.names attribute:

#sort rows alphabetically using row.names
df[order(row.names(df)), ]

  position points assists rebounds
A        G     99      33       30
B        C     95      34       28
C        G     90      28       28
D        F     88      39       24
E        F     86      31       24

The rows are sorted from A to Z based on the row name value.

You can also use the decreasing=TRUE argument to sort from Z to A:

#sort rows from Z to A using row.names
df[order(row.names(df), decreasing=TRUE), ]

  position points assists rebounds
E        F     86      31       24
D        F     88      39       24
C        G     90      28       28
B        C     95      34       28
A        G     99      33       30

Example 2: Sort Data Frame Using Numeric row.names

Suppose we have the following data frame in R:

#create data frame
df <- data.frame(position=c('G', 'G', 'F', 'F', 'C'),
                 points=c(99, 90, 86, 88, 95),
                 assists=c(33, 28, 31, 39, 34),
                 rebounds=c(30, 28, 24, 24, 28))

#set row names of data frame
row.names(df) <- c(1, 100, 4, 12, 19)

#view data frame
df

    position points assists rebounds
1          G     99      33       30
100        G     90      28       28
4          F     86      31       24
12         F     88      39       24
19         C     95      34       28

#sort by row names from smallest to largest
df[order(as.numeric(row.names(df))), ]

    position points assists rebounds
1          G     99      33       30
4          F     86      31       24
12         F     88      39       24
19         C     95      34       28
100        G     90      28       28

We could also use decreasing=TRUE to sort from largest to smallest:

#sort by row names from largest to smallest
df[order(as.numeric(row.names(df)), decreasing=TRUE), ]

    position points assists rebounds
100        G     90      28       28
19         C     95      34       28
12         F     88      39       24
4          F     86      31       24
1          G     99      33       30

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in R: