r select column names starting with
# Data
df <- data.frame( ABC_1 = runif(3),
ABC_2 = runif(3),
XYZ_1 = runif(3),
XYZ_2 = runif(3) )
# ABC_1 ABC_2 XYZ_1 XYZ_2
#1 0.3792645 0.3614199 0.9793573 0.7139381
#2 0.1313246 0.9746691 0.7276705 0.0126057
#3 0.7282680 0.6518444 0.9531389 0.9673290
# Use grepl
df[ , grepl( "ABC" , names( df ) ) ]
# ABC_1 ABC_2
#1 0.3792645 0.3614199
#2 0.1313246 0.9746691
#3 0.7282680 0.6518444
# grepl returns logical vector like this which is what we use to subset columns
grepl( "ABC" , names( df ) )
#[1] TRUE TRUE FALSE FALSE