Как насчет этого?
library(data.table)
data2 <- melt(setDT(data), id.vars = "id", variable.name = "year")
data2[, l := substr(year, 6,6)][, year := gsub("[a-zA-Z]", "", year)]
dcast(data2, id + year ~ l, value.var = "value")[order(year, id)]
id year a b
1: 1 2010 1 5
2: 2 2010 1 5
3: 3 2010 1 5
4: 4 2010 1 5
5: 1 2011 2 6
6: 2 2011 2 6
7: 3 2011 2 6
8: 4 2011 2 6
9: 1 2012 3 7
10: 2 2012 3 7
11: 3 2012 3 7
12: 4 2012 3 7
Данные:
data <- data.frame(
id = 1:4,
`2010a` = c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L),
`2011a` = c(2L, 2L, 2L, 2L),
`2012a` = c(3L, 3L, 3L, 3L),
`2010b` = c(5L, 5L, 5L, 5L),
`2011b` = c(6L, 6L, 6L, 6L),
`2012b` = c(7L, 7L, 7L, 7L)
)