r - Compare two data.frames to find the rows in data.frame 1 that are not present in data.frame 2

Question

I have the following 2 data.frames:

a1 <- data.frame(a = 1:5, b=letters[1:5])
a2 <- data.frame(a = 1:3, b=letters[1:3])

I want to find the row a1 has that a2 doesn't.

Is there a built in function for this type of operation?

(p.s: I did write a solution for it, I am simply curious if someone already made a more crafted code)

Here is my solution:

a1 <- data.frame(a = 1:5, b=letters[1:5])
a2 <- data.frame(a = 1:3, b=letters[1:3])

rows.in.a1.that.are.not.in.a2  <- function(a1,a2)
{
    a1.vec <- apply(a1, 1, paste, collapse = "")
    a2.vec <- apply(a2, 1, paste, collapse = "")
    a1.without.a2.rows <- a1[!a1.vec %in% a2.vec,]
    return(a1.without.a2.rows)
}
rows.in.a1.that.are.not.in.a2(a1,a2)

Answer 1

sqldf provides a nice solution

a1 <- data.frame(a = 1:5, b=letters[1:5])
a2 <- data.frame(a = 1:3, b=letters[1:3])

require(sqldf)

a1NotIna2 <- sqldf('SELECT * FROM a1 EXCEPT SELECT * FROM a2')

And the rows which are in both data frames:

a1Ina2 <- sqldf('SELECT * FROM a1 INTERSECT SELECT * FROM a2')

The new version of dplyr has a function, anti_join, for exactly these kinds of comparisons

require(dplyr) 
anti_join(a1,a2)

And semi_join to filter rows in a1 that are also in a2

semi_join(a1,a2)