[R] transposing a data frame from horizontal to vertical (stacking)

[Dimitri Liakhovitski]

Hello, everyone!
I have a very simple task - I have a data frame (see MyData below) and
I need to stack the data (see result below).
I wrote the syntax below - it's very basic and it does what I need.
But I am sure what I am trying to do is a very typical task and there
must be a much shorter/more elegant way of doing it.
Any advice?

Thank you very much!


MyData<-data.frame(names=c("John","Mary","Paul","Debby"),jan=c(10,15,20,25),feb=c(1,2,3,4))
(MyData)
months<-names(MyData)[-1]
people<-as.character(MyData[[1]])

### Creating a temp matrix with people as columns and months as rows:
transposed<-apply(MyData[-1],1,t)

### Putting vertical data (months as rows) - for each person - into a list:
list.of.stacked<-list()
for(i in 1:ncol(transposed)){
	list.of.stacked[[i]]<-as.data.frame(matrix(ncol=3,nrow=length(months)))
	names(list.of.stacked[[i]])<-c("month","values","person")
	list.of.stacked[[i]][["month"]]<-months
	list.of.stacked[[i]][["values"]]<-transposed[1:nrow(transposed),i]
	list.of.stacked[[i]][["person"]]<-people[i]
}
(list.of.stacked)

### Creating a data frame from the list:
result<-do.call(rbind,list.of.stacked)
(result)


-- 
Dimitri Liakhovitski
Ninah Consulting
www.ninah.com