Question

I have a data frame in R that looks like this:

> TimeOffset, Source, Length 
> 0         1           1500
> 0.1       1           1000    
> 0.2       1           50
> 0.4       2           25
> 0.6       2           3
> 1.1       1           1500
> 1.4       1           18
> 1.6       2           2500
> 1.9       2           18
> 2.1       1           37
> ...

and I want to convert it to

> TimeOffset, Source, Length
> 0.2         1       2550
> 0.6         2       28
> 1.4         1       1518
> 1.9         2       2518
> ...

Trying to put this into English, I want to group consecutive records with the same ‘Source’ together, then printing out a single record per group showing the highest time offset in that group, the source, and the sum of the lengths in that group.

The TimeOffset values will always increase.

I suspect this is possible in R, but I really don’t know where to start. In a pinch I could export the data frame out and do it in e.g. Python, but I’d prefer to stay within R if possible.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide

Answer 1

First you need to create an id variable that specifies your groups without relying on the fact that they are consecutive. After that it is pretty straight forward.

> dat <- data.frame(    TimeOffset = c(0,.1,.2,.4,.6,1.1,1.4,1.6,1.9,2.1),
+ Source=c(1,1,1,2,2,1,1,2,2,1),
+ Length=c(1500,1000,50,25,3,1500,18,2500,18,37))
> dat
   TimeOffset Source Length
1         0.0      1   1500
2         0.1      1   1000
3         0.2      1     50
4         0.4      2     25
5         0.6      2      3
6         1.1      1   1500
7         1.4      1     18
8         1.6      2   2500
9         1.9      2     18
10        2.1      1     37
> 
> id <- cumsum(c(TRUE,diff(dat$Source)!=0))
> id
 [1] 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5
> 
> cbind(TimeOffset=tapply(dat$TimeOffset,id,max),
+ Source=tapply(dat$Source,id,max),
+ Length=tapply(dat$Length,id,sum))
  TimeOffset Source Length
1        0.2      1   2550
2        0.6      2     28
3        1.4      1   1518
4        1.9      2   2518
5        2.1      1     37