r - Merge function messes up the data order -

i have set of pairs of origin , destination points in df1. add columns data a) attributes of orig df2. add attributes dest column df3. problem order of df1 gets rearranged , not intention. question how keep order of rows constant in final output without need add column @ beginning id, later on sort?

original table:

  orig dest 1       b 2    b    e 3    c    4    b    c 5       b 6    c    7    e    b  orig = c("a","b","c","b","a","c","e") dest = c("b","e","a","c","b","a","b")  df1 = data.frame(orig,dest)  code <- c("a","b","c","d","e") name <- c("ams","bir","cas","das","ees") lat <- c(4,6,7,3,2) long <- c(13,45,63,43,23) df2 <- data.frame(code,name,lat,long) df3 <- data.frame(code,name,lat,long) colnames(df2) <- c("orig","name","lat","long") colnames(df3) <- c("dest","name","lat","long")  result1 <- merge(df1,df2,by = c("orig"), sort=false) # tried without sort result2 <- merge(result1,df3,by = c("dest"), sort=false) 

my current outcome

  dest orig name.x lat.x long.x name.y lat.y long.y 1    b       ams     4     13    bir     6     45 2    b       ams     4     13    bir     6     45 3    b    e    ees     2     23    bir     6     45 4    e    b    bir     6     45    ees     2     23 5    c    b    bir     6     45    cas     7     63 6       c    cas     7     63    ams     4     13 7       c    cas     7     63    ams     4     13 

desired outcome:

  orig dest name.x lat.x long.x name.y lat.y long.y 1       b    ams     4     13    bir     6     45 2    b    e    bir     6     45    ees     2     23 3    c       cas     7     63    ams     4     13 4    b    c    bir     6     45    cas     7     63 5       b    ams     4     13    bir     6     45 6    c       cas     7     63    ams     4     13 7    e    b    ees     2     23    bir     6     45 

so depending on if want attributes match orig or dest, change up, can sort attributes df2 either orig or dest:

df2[charmatch(orig,code),] 

and add in dest/orig column df1