str()
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Description

The str() function comes with R and is part of the Base R {utils} package.

We use this function to quickly view the structure of a given variable, commonly a tibble (data frame). When used on a data frame, this function will show the number rows and columns, column names, columns types, and information about the top values.

Note that there is related function in the {dplyr} package called dplyr::glimpse() which offers an improved view of the structure of tibbles (data frames).

Conceptual Usage

str(a data frame or other variable to see structure of)

Examples

Some examples below use the carnivores dataset. Learn more about this dataset with get_help("carnivores").

# Show the carnivores dataset
carnivores
## # A tibble: 9 × 4
##   name              genus        awake brainwt
##   <chr>             <fct>        <dbl>   <dbl>
## 1 Arctic fox        Vulpes        11.5  0.0445
## 2 Cheetah           Acinonyx      11.9 NA     
## 3 Dog               Canis         13.9  0.07  
## 4 Gray seal         Haliochoerus  17.8  0.325 
## 5 Jaguar            Panthera      13.6  0.157 
## 6 Lion              Panthera      10.5 NA     
## 7 Northern fur seal Callorhinus   15.3 NA     
## 8 Red fox           Vulpes        14.2  0.0504
## 9 Tiger             Panthera       8.2 NA


# Show structure of the carnivores tibble
str(carnivores)
## tibble [9 × 4] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
##  $ name   : chr [1:9] "Arctic fox" "Cheetah" "Dog" "Gray seal" ...
##  $ genus  : Factor w/ 6 levels "Acinonyx","Callorhinus",..: 6 1 3 4 5 5 2 6 5
##  $ awake  : num [1:9] 11.5 11.9 13.9 17.8 13.6 10.5 15.3 14.2 8.2
##  $ brainwt: num [1:9] 0.0445 NA 0.07 0.325 0.157 NA NA 0.0504 NA


# Show structure of the iris data frame, which comes built in with R
# Note how the output shows this is technically a data frame, not a tibble
str(iris)
## 'data.frame':    150 obs. of  5 variables:
##  $ Sepal.Length: num  5.1 4.9 4.7 4.6 5 5.4 4.6 5 4.4 4.9 ...
##  $ Sepal.Width : num  3.5 3 3.2 3.1 3.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 2.9 3.1 ...
##  $ Petal.Length: num  1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 ...
##  $ Petal.Width : num  0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 ...
##  $ Species     : Factor w/ 3 levels "setosa","versicolor",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...