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I'm working on the capstone project for my Google Data Analytics certificate and I'm trying to rename the columns on 1 of my data sets to match the others in order to merge them, but I keep getting 2 different errors when attempting to execute it on just 1 column to start.

This is the code I've tried using and the old column name is exactly as it appears in the dataset (start_time being what I want to label it as and 01-Rental, etc as the current label):

Divvy_Trips_2019_Q2 %>%  
  rename(start_time=01 - Rental Details Local Start Time)

And I get:

Error: unexpected symbol in:
"Divvy_Trips_2019_Q2 %>%
rename(start_time=01 - Rental Details"

As well as a red x next to that line of code that indicates:

unexpected token 'Details'
unexpected token 'Start

I found a related article that suggested to add backticks to the column name with all the spaces, but this didn't work either. I get another error when attempting that fix:

Divvy_Trips_2019_Q2 %>%   
  rename(start_time=`01 - Rental Details Local Start Time`)

Error: unexpected symbol in:
"Divvy_Trips_2019_Q2 %>%
rename(start_time=01 - Rental Details"

I've attempted a colnames code that also didn't work:

colnames(Divvy_Trips_2019_Q2$`01 - Rental Details Local Start Time`[2]) <- 'start_time'

Error in colnames<-(*tmp*, value = "start_time") :
attempt to set 'colnames' on an object with less than two dimensions

When trying to research the original error, I couldn't find much else in terms of suggestions given the remaining articles seemed to be too old or more complex than what I'm trying to do.

I'm also interested in how I can do this with multiple columns at a time.

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    library(dplyr); df <- tibble(`01 - Rental Details Local Start Time` = 1); df %>% rename(start_time=`01 - Rental Details Local Start Time`) works for me. What do you get when you run this code? Commented Aug 7, 2024 at 16:30
  • 1
    Please read about how to make a great R reproducible example and update your question accordingly. Include a sample of your data by pasting the output of dput(<your data frame>) into your post or dput(head(<your data frame>)) if you have a large data frame. If you cannot post your data, then post code for creating representative data. You can get more exact help if you post a reproducible example. Commented Aug 7, 2024 at 16:38
  • This is how to rename a column very simply using base R: colnames(df2)[2] <- "distance". I have just renamed the dist column in the cars dataset to distance. Commented Aug 7, 2024 at 16:57
  • Thank you both! @IfeanyiIdiaye that worked, I truly appreciate it!! Commented Aug 8, 2024 at 1:13
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