Create an empty data.frame

If you already have an existent data frame, let's say df that has the columns you want, then you can just create an empty data frame by removing all the rows:

empty_df = df[FALSE,]

Notice that df still contains the data, but empty_df doesn't.

I found this question looking for how to create a new instance with empty rows, so I think it might be helpful for some people.

Just initialize it with empty vectors:

df <- data.frame(Date=as.Date(character()),
                 File=character(), 
                 User=character(), 
                 stringsAsFactors=FALSE) 

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Here's an other example with different column types :

df <- data.frame(Doubles=double(),
                 Ints=integer(),
                 Factors=factor(),
                 Logicals=logical(),
                 Characters=character(),
                 stringsAsFactors=FALSE)

str(df)
> str(df)
'data.frame':   0 obs. of  5 variables:
 $ Doubles   : num 
 $ Ints      : int 
 $ Factors   : Factor w/ 0 levels: 
 $ Logicals  : logi 
 $ Characters: chr 

N.B. :

Initializing a data.frame with an empty column of the wrong type does not prevent further additions of rows having columns of different types.
This method is just a bit safer in the sense that you'll have the correct column types from the beginning, hence if your code relies on some column type checking, it will work even with a data.frame with zero rows.