Dear All,
 
I have searched the forum but could not find a thread about the way to solve my problem. I am trying to find a way to use a subset of a list of variable names I have when I call the "cbind" command to create a data matrix, after I have attached a dataset. The nature of my program necessitates that I create different data matrices using a subset of variable names multiple times. So, when I change the variables for the analysis, I need to make 5-6 manipulations to my program and it is painful. Is there a way to use a character vector containing variable names in the cbind command? What I tried is
1.I loaded and attached a data set.
2.I have a character vector containing the variables I want to use in the analysis. Say
 name <- c("a1","a2","a3", "a4")
 
I have several vectors of this type to use in the analysis, so to create a data matrix, I use the cbind command but as expected the following does not work:
X <- cbind(1, name)
cbind requires "," between the variable names so when I do
X <- cbind(1, paste(",", name, collapse=""))
it still doesn't work although the printed version of the second portion is more or less what I need.
 
Is there a way to do this?
 
Thanks for the help in advance.
    
Alex


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