Convert the values in a column into row names in an existing data frame in R

To make first column row names in r data frame, you can do the following:

#To create the data frame:

df<-data.frame(names=LETTERS[1:5], Var.1=1:5,Var.2=5:1,Var.3=0:4 )

> df

  names Var.1 Var.2 Var.3

1 A 1 5 0

2 B 2 4 1

3 C 3 3 2

4 D 4 2 3

5 E 5 1 4

> rownames(df) <- df[,1] #Assigning row names from 1st column

> df[,1] <- NULL #Removing the first column

> df

  Var.1 Var.2 Var.3

A 1 5 0

B 2 4 1

C 3 3 2

D 4 2 3

E 5 1 4