Unique combination of all elements from two (or more) vectors

Question

I am trying to create a unique combination of all elements from two vectors of different size in R.

For example, the first vector is

a <- c(\"ABC\         


        

Answer 1

you can use order function for sorting any number of columns. for your example

df <- expand.grid(a,b)
> df
   Var1       Var2
1   ABC 2012-05-01
2   DEF 2012-05-01
3   GHI 2012-05-01
4   ABC 2012-05-02
5   DEF 2012-05-02
6   GHI 2012-05-02
7   ABC 2012-05-03
8   DEF 2012-05-03
9   GHI 2012-05-03
10  ABC 2012-05-04
11  DEF 2012-05-04
12  GHI 2012-05-04
13  ABC 2012-05-05
14  DEF 2012-05-05
15  GHI 2012-05-05

> df[order( df[,1], df[,2] ),] 
   Var1       Var2
1   ABC 2012-05-01
4   ABC 2012-05-02
7   ABC 2012-05-03
10  ABC 2012-05-04
13  ABC 2012-05-05
2   DEF 2012-05-01
5   DEF 2012-05-02
8   DEF 2012-05-03
11  DEF 2012-05-04
14  DEF 2012-05-05
3   GHI 2012-05-01
6   GHI 2012-05-02
9   GHI 2012-05-03
12  GHI 2012-05-04
15  GHI 2012-05-05`