Gather multiple sets of columns

Question

I have data from an online survey where respondents go through a loop of questions 1-3 times. The survey software (Qualtrics) records this data in multiple columns—that is,

Answer 1

This approach seems pretty natural to me:

df %>%
  gather(key, value, -id, -time) %>%
  extract(key, c("question", "loop_number"), "(Q.\\..)\\.(.)") %>%
  spread(question, value)

First gather all question columns, use extract() to separate into question and loop_number, then spread() question back into the columns.

#>    id       time loop_number         Q3.2        Q3.3
#> 1   1 2009-01-01           1  0.142259203 -0.35842736
#> 2   1 2009-01-01           2  0.061034802  0.79354061
#> 3   1 2009-01-01           3 -0.525686204 -0.67456611
#> 4   2 2009-01-02           1 -1.044461185 -1.19662936
#> 5   2 2009-01-02           2  0.393808163  0.42384717