Multiple across calls to arrange ignore subsequent across statements if first returns more than one column

[andrewbaxter439]

As noted in this stack overflow question, using across(starts_with(...)) in an arrange() call has odd behaviour when selecting more than one column.

See example below with two across calls looking for one or more columns. If the first across call returns more than one column, then these are ordered with the expected priority, but the second call to across is ignored. If the first across call returns one column, then the second evaluates fine.

library(tibble)
library(dplyr)

df <- tibble(a_1 = rep(3:1, each = 4),
             a_2 = rep(13:11, each = 4),
             b_1 = rep(24:21, each = 3),
             b_2 = 22:11)

df |> 
  arrange(across(starts_with("a_")),
          across(starts_with("b_")))

#> # A tibble: 12 × 4
#>      a_1   a_2   b_1   b_2
#>    <int> <int> <int> <int>
#>  1     1    11    22    14
#>  2     1    11    21    13
#>  3     1    11    21    12
#>  4     1    11    21    11
#>  5     2    12    23    18
#>  6     2    12    23    17
#>  7     2    12    22    16
#>  8     2    12    22    15
#>  9     3    13    24    22
#> 10     3    13    24    21
#> 11     3    13    24    20
#> 12     3    13    23    19

# `a_1` and `a_2` are correctly ordered; `b_1` and `b_2` have remained untouched within each stratum of `a_1`*`a_2`

df |> 
  select(-a_2) |> 
  arrange(across(starts_with("a_")),
          across(starts_with("b_")))

#> # A tibble: 12 × 3
#>      a_1   b_1   b_2
#>    <int> <int> <int>
#>  1     1    21    11
#>  2     1    21    12
#>  3     1    21    13
#>  4     1    22    14
#>  5     2    22    15
#>  6     2    22    16
#>  7     2    23    17
#>  8     2    23    18
#>  9     3    23    19
#> 10     3    24    20
#> 11     3    24    21
#> 12     3    24    22

# `a_1`, `b_1` and `b_2` are now correctly ordered.

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value
#>  version  R version 4.2.1 (2022-06-23 ucrt)
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#>  collate  English_United Kingdom.utf8
#>  ctype    English_United Kingdom.utf8
#>  tz       Europe/London
#>  date     2022-10-04
#>  pandoc   2.18 @ C:/Program Files/RStudio/bin/quarto/bin/tools/ (via rmarkdown)
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  package     * version date (UTC) lib source
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#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[DavisVaughan]

Already fixed in the dev version!

library(dplyr)

df <- tibble(a_1 = rep(3:1, each = 4),
             a_2 = rep(13:11, each = 4),
             b_1 = rep(24:21, each = 3),
             b_2 = 22:11)

df |> 
  arrange(across(starts_with("a_")),
          across(starts_with("b_")))
#> # A tibble: 12 × 4
#>      a_1   a_2   b_1   b_2
#>    <int> <int> <int> <int>
#>  1     1    11    21    11
#>  2     1    11    21    12
#>  3     1    11    21    13
#>  4     1    11    22    14
#>  5     2    12    22    15
#>  6     2    12    22    16
#>  7     2    12    23    17
#>  8     2    12    23    18
#>  9     3    13    23    19
#> 10     3    13    24    20
#> 11     3    13    24    21
#> 12     3    13    24    22

[andrewbaxter439]

Great, thanks for this! Had searched issues but hadn't seen the linked one, nor would have seen the connection if I had. Works perfectly!