Since dplyr 0.8 group_by
gained the .drop
argument that does just what you asked for:
df = data.frame(a=rep(1:3,4), b=rep(1:2,6))
df$b = factor(df$b, levels=1:3)
df %>%
group_by(b, .drop=FALSE) %>%
summarise(count_a=length(a))
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#> b count_a
#> <fct> <int>
#> 1 1 6
#> 2 2 6
#> 3 3 0
One additional note to go with @Moody_Mudskipper's answer: Using .drop=FALSE
can give potentially unexpected results when one or more grouping variables are not coded as factors. See examples below:
library(dplyr)
data(iris)
# Add an additional level to Species
iris$Species = factor(iris$Species, levels=c(levels(iris$Species), "empty_level"))
# Species is a factor and empty groups are included in the output
iris %>% group_by(Species, .drop=FALSE) %>% tally
#> Species n
#> 1 setosa 50
#> 2 versicolor 50
#> 3 virginica 50
#> 4 empty_level 0
# Add character column
iris$group2 = c(rep(c("A","B"), 50), rep(c("B","C"), each=25))
# Empty groups involving combinations of Species and group2 are not included in output
iris %>% group_by(Species, group2, .drop=FALSE) %>% tally
#> Species group2 n
#> 1 setosa A 25
#> 2 setosa B 25
#> 3 versicolor A 25
#> 4 versicolor B 25
#> 5 virginica B 25
#> 6 virginica C 25
#> 7 empty_level <NA> 0
# Turn group2 into a factor
iris$group2 = factor(iris$group2)
# Now all possible combinations of Species and group2 are included in the output,
# whether present in the data or not
iris %>% group_by(Species, group2, .drop=FALSE) %>% tally
#> Species group2 n
#> 1 setosa A 25
#> 2 setosa B 25
#> 3 setosa C 0
#> 4 versicolor A 25
#> 5 versicolor B 25
#> 6 versicolor C 0
#> 7 virginica A 0
#> 8 virginica B 25
#> 9 virginica C 25
#> 10 empty_level A 0
#> 11 empty_level B 0
#> 12 empty_level C 0
Created on 2019-03-13 by the reprex package (v0.2.1)