如何使用字符串作为df $列调用（R）

Question

Lets say I have a large program where we call a certain variable many times in the code. This variable will change for different analysis. At the beginning of the code I want to create a call where I only change the variable once. How can I use this to call a df column?

example

df <- stuff

traitofinterest <- color

later on in the code... how do I use this to call stuff$color?

stuff$traitofinterest no workey

edit: Yes, that works! I am not sure why I overlooked this basic usage.. Im still relatively new to R.

Answer 1

The "yes workey" solution would be to use something like:

stuff[, traitofinterest]

or

stuff[, traitofinterest, drop = FALSE]

depending on the desired output structure you want when there is only one variable in "traitofinterest" (which it sounds like there will be in general).