I have this df:
df <- structure(list(a = 1:5, b = 6:10, c = 11:15, d = c("a", "b", 
"c", "d", "e"), e = 1:5), row.names = c(NA, -5L), class = c("tbl_df", 
"tbl", "data.frame"))
      a     b     c d         e
  <int> <int> <int> <chr> <int>
1     1     6    11 a         1
2     2     7    12 b         2
3     3     8    13 c         3
4     4     9    14 d         4
5     5    10    15 e         5
rownames_to_column works:
df %>% 
  column_to_rownames(var="d") %>% 
  rownames_to_column(var= "d")
# Output
  d a  b  c e
1 a 1  6 11 1
2 b 2  7 12 2
3 c 3  8 13 3
4 d 4  9 14 4
5 e 5 10 15 5
rownames_to_column works not properly (gives back the index?)
df %>%  
  column_to_rownames(var="d") %>% 
  rowwise() %>% 
  rownames_to_column(var= "d")
# Output:
  d         a     b     c     e
  <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
1 1         1     6    11     1
2 2         2     7    12     2
3 3         3     8    13     3
4 4         4     9    14     4
5 5         5    10    15     5
Why does this behaviour occur?
df originally is a tibble.
class(df)
[1] "tbl_df"     "tbl"        "data.frame"
When you use column_to_rownames it becomes a dataframe since tibbles can't have rownames.
df1 <- df %>% column_to_rownames(var="d")
class(df1)
#[1] "data.frame"
Next, when you use rowwise the data becomes converted to tibble again and rownames are now lost.
df2 <- df1 %>% rowwise()
class(df2)
#[1] "rowwise_df" "tbl_df"     "tbl"        "data.frame"
So when you do df2 %>% rownames_to_column(var = 'd') there are no rownames present hence you get a column d with row number.
rownames(df2)
#[1] "1" "2" "3" "4" "5"
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