r- split a column to multiple columns - changing pattern

Question

Please note I read a similar question about splitting a column of a data frame to multiple columns, but my case is different.

My form of data is as follows:

  name    description      
1 a       hello|hello again|something 
2 b       hello again|something|hello
3 c       hello again|hello
4 d

I'd like to split the description column as follows:

  name    description_1 description_2 description_3
1 a       hello         hello again   something 
2 b       hello         hello again   something 
3 c       hello         hello again   N/A
4 d       N/A           N/A           N/A

Any suggestions, directions?

EDIT: Following @akrun and @Sotos answers (thanks!), here's a more accurate presentation of my data:

  name    description      
1 a       add words|change|approximate 
2 b       control|access|approximate
4 d

therefore, sorting the data alphabetically results in:

  name    description_1    description_2 description_3
1 a       add words        approximate   change 
2 b       access           approximate   control 
4 d       N/A           N/A           N/A

while, what I need is:

  name    desc_1      desc_2       desc_3   desc_4   desc_5
1 a       add words   approximate  change   N/A      N/A
2 b       N/A         approximate  N/A      control  access 
4 d       N/A         N/A          N/A      N/A      N/A

I don't mind how description is sorted (if at all), as long as at each column (desc_1..5) I will have the same description. Hopefully, that clarifies my problem.

Answer 1

We can use match to change the order based on the order of the first entry of description, and then split using cSplit from splitstackshape package,

library(splitstackshape)
#make sure column 'description' is a character
df$description <- as.character(df$description)

ind <- strsplit(df$description, '\|')[[1]]
df$description <- sapply(strsplit(df$description, '\|'), function(i) 
                                         paste(i[order(match(i, ind))], collapse = '|'))

cSplit(df, 'description', sep = '|', 'wide')
#   name description_1 description_2 description_3
#1:    a         hello   hello_again     something
#2:    b         hello   hello_again     something
#3:    c         hello   hello_again            NA
#4:    d            NA            NA            NA