Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type ‘list’ (2 Examples)

In this tutorial, I’ll illustrate how to solve the Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type ‘list’ in the R programming language.

Creating Example Data

data(iris)                                         # Loading example data frame
head(iris)                                         # Printing data frame to RStudio console
#   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
# 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
# 4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
# 5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 6          5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa

Example 1: Replicating the Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type ‘list’

iris[ , list("Sepal.Length", "Species")]           # Try to select variables with list
# Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type 'list'

Example 2: Solve the Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type ‘list’

iris_sub <- iris[ , c("Sepal.Length", "Species")]  # Properly select variables with vector
head(iris_sub)                                     # Display data frame subset
#   Sepal.Length Species
# 1          5.1  setosa
# 2          4.9  setosa
# 3          4.7  setosa
# 4          4.6  setosa
# 5          5.0  setosa
# 6          5.4  setosa

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