10 Must-Know Tidyverse Functions: #3 - Pivot Wider and Longer
Written by Matt Dancho
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/tidyverse_pivot_cover.png)
This article is part of a R-Tips Weekly, a weekly video tutorial that shows you step-by-step how to do common R coding tasks.
Learn how to use pivot_wider()
and pivot_longer()
to format data like a data wizard:
(Click image to play tutorial)
Why Pivot Wider?
Pivoting wider is essential for making summary tables that go into reports & help humans (like you and me) understand key information.
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_wider_intro.jpg)
Letβs say we have some automobile manufacturer data that we want to format into a table that people can read.
We can summarize and pivot the data by manufacturer and class to understand the number of vehicle classes that each manufacturer produces.
The result is a table that I can glean for insights.
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_wider_1.jpg)
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_wider_2.jpg)
Why Pivot Longer?
Pivot longer lengthens data, increasing the number of rows and decreasing the number of columns.
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_longer_1.jpg)
We can convert from wide to long with Pivot Longer, which gets it into the correct format to visualize with GGPLOT HEATMAP. π₯π₯π₯
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_longer_2.jpg)
![](/assets/2020-11-10-tidyverse-pivot/pivot_longer_3.jpg)
That was ridiculously easy. Keep it up & youβll become a tidyverse
rockstar.
![rockstar](/assets/2020-11-03-tidyverse-across/rockstar.gif)
You Learned Something New!
Great! But, you need to learn a lot to become an R programming wizard.
What happens after you learn R for Business from Matt π
![Tidyverse wizard](/assets/2020-11-03-tidyverse-across/magic.gif)
β¦And the look on your bossβ face after seeing your first Shiny App. π
![Amazed](/assets/2020-11-03-tidyverse-across/amazed.gif)
This is career acceleration.
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