Column types

Overview

This vignette shows an overview of known data types and their abbreviations, and their origin. For example, <int> in the header of a column indicates an integer column, and <chr> denotes a character column.

Class	Data type	Example	Column header
Atomic	logical	`TRUE`	lgl
	integer	`1L`	int
	double	`1.5`	dbl
	character	`"A"`	chr
	complex	`0+1i`	cpl
	raw	`as.raw(1)`	raw
	list	`list(1)`	list
	named list	`list(a = 1)`	named list
Built-in objects	factor	`factor("A")`	fct
	ordered	`ordered("a")`	ord
	Date	`Sys.Date()`	date
	POSIXt	`Sys.time()`	dttm
	difftime	`vctrs::new_duration(1)`	drtn
Objects from other packages	hms	`hms::hms(1)`	time
	integer64	`bit64::as.integer64(1e+10)`	int64
	blob	`blob::blob(raw(1))`	blob
Data frames	data.frame	`data.frame(a = 1)`	df[,1]
	tbl_df	`tibble(a = 1)`	tibble[,1]
Unchanged	AsIs	`I(1L)`	I
vctrs types	unspecified	`vctrs::unspecified(1)`	???
	vctrs_list_of	`vctrs::list_of(c(1L))`	list
	vctrs_vctr	`vctrs::new_vctr(1L)`	vctrs_vc
	vctrs_partial_factor	`vctrs::partial_factor(letters)`	prtl_fctr
	vctrs_partial_frame	`vctrs::partial_frame(a = 1)`	prtl
Language objects	function	`function() NULL`	fn
	symbol	`quote(a)`	sym
	expression	`parse(text = "a <- 1\nb<- 2")`	expression
	quosures	`rlang::quos(a = 1)`	quos

Example values

The following overview contains example values for each type:

#> Rows: 1
#> Columns: 23
#> $ logical       <lgl> TRUE
#> $ integer       <int> 1
#> $ double        <dbl> 1.5
#> $ character     <chr> "A"
#> $ complex       <cpl> 0+1i
#> $ raw           <raw> 01
#> $ list          <list> 1
#> $ `named list`  <named list> 1
#> $ factor        <fct> A
#> $ ordered       <ord> a
#> $ Date          <date> 2025-06-07
#> $ POSIXt        <dttm> 2025-06-07 10:54:32
#> $ difftime      <drtn> 1 secs
#> $ hms           <time> 00:00:01
#> $ integer64     <int64> 10000000000
#> $ blob          <blob> 00
#> $ data.frame    <df[,1]> <data.frame[1 x 1]>
#> $ tbl_df        <tibble[,1]> <tbl_df[1 x 1]>
#> $ AsIs          <I<int>> 1
#> $ unspecified   <???> NA
#> $ vctrs_list_of <list<int>> 1
#> $ vctrs_vctr    <vctrs_vc> 1
#> $ quosures      <quos> <~1>

Implementation

The column header is obtained by calling pillar::type_sum() on the column. This is an S3 method that can be overridden, but most of the time it is more useful to override vctrs::vec_ptype_abbr():

pillar:::type_sum.default
#> function (x) 
#> {
#>     pillar_attr <- attr(x, "pillar", exact = TRUE)
#>     label <- pillar_attr$label
#>     if (!is.null(label)) {
#>         return(I(label))
#>     }
#>     if (is.object(x) || vec_is(x)) {
#>         return(vec_ptype_abbr(x))
#>     }
#>     switch(typeof(x), builtin = , special = , closure = "fn", 
#>         environment = "env", symbol = if (is_missing(x)) {
#>             "missing"
#>         } else {
#>             "sym"
#>         }, typeof(x))
#> }
#> <bytecode: 0x12ab321f0>
#> <environment: namespace:pillar>