replacing all NA values in a column with 0 in R using dplyr

Question

merged$number_articles %>% replace_na(0)

Im trying to replace all na values in a column (number_articles) in the df (merged), with 0. I have tried the above code but the values are not getting replaced. It still shows NA in every observation. Also, I have to do this using dplyr.

Answer 1

I know this isn't quite what you are looking for, but you can do this in base R with:

merged$number_articles[is.na(merged$number_articles)] <- 0

Answer 2

take a look at?replace_na for some help.

This should work:

merged <- merged %>%
   mutate(number_articles = replace_na(number_articles, 0))

EDIT: modified to include in a mutate, which I believe solves the issue identified by 42 in comments.

Answer 3

R generally (with the data.table exception) requires replacing the starting point with the result of the computation. After reviewing the examples in help(replace_na, pac=tidyr), I suggest:

library(tidyr)  # or library(tidyverse)
merged <- merged %>% 
            replace_na( list(number_articles =0) )

Or:

merged <- merged %>% mutate(
            replace_na( number_articles , 0) )