My suggestion, since bold doesn't show up in a text only mailing list, would be to look into the function ?aggregate.
It looks like something like (assuming your data is in a mydat): mydat.new <- aggregate(cbind(STN_ID, YEAR, MM, DAY) ~ ELEM + ?, mydat, FUN = ?) #this is up to you Alternatively, the plyr package is great at transforming data.frames. On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 3:03 PM, Scott Hatcher <scott.v.hatc...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I have a large data frame that is organized by date in a peculiar way. I > am seeking advice on how to transform the data into a format that is of > more use to me. > > The data is organized as follows: > > STN_ID YEAR MM ELEM X1 X2 X3 X4 > X5 X6 X7 > 1 2402594 1997 9 1 *-00233* *-00204* *-00119* -00190 -00251 > -00243 -00249 > 2 2402594 1997 10 1 -00003 -00005 -00001 -00039 > -00031 -00036 -00033 > 3 2402594 1997 11 1 000025 000065 000070 000069 > 000115 000072 000093 > 4 2402594 1997 12 1 000160 000114 000143 000140 > 000093 000068 000157 > 5 2402594 1998 1 1 000067 000095 000139 000113 > 000066 000081 000070 > 6 2402594 1998 2 1 000098 000102 000140 000124 > 000082 000111 000047 > 7 2402594 1998 3 1 -00039 -00006 000015 000015 > 000016 000035 000013 > 8 2402594 1998 4 1 -00035 -00046 -00046 -00062 > -00018 -00025 -00012 > 9 2402594 1998 5 1 000031 000011 -00005 -00061 > -00061 -00080 -00217 > 10 2402594 1997 9 2 *-00339 -00339 -00343* -00346 -00285 > -00253 -00253 > 11 2402594 1997 10 2 -00207 -00289 -00278 -00271 > -00258 -00315 -00341 > 12 2402594 1997 11 2 -00242 -00230 -00206 -00180 > -00256 -00227 -00241 > 13 2402594 1997 12 2 -00155 -00153 -00118 -00066 > -00088 -00073 -00032 > 14 2402594 1998 1 2 000003 -00021 -00033 -00022 > -00014 000001 000008 > 15 2402594 1998 2 2 000050 000077 000106 000073 > 000060 000060 000083 > 16 2402594 1998 3 2 000095 000063 000030 000057 > 000073 000144 000090 > 17 2402594 1998 4 2 000128 000178 000195 000157 > 000160 000160 000117 > 18 2402594 1998 5 2 000074 000064 000051 000027 > 000053 000063 000067 > > Where "MM" is the month of the year, and ELEM is the variable to which > the values in the X* columns describe (in the actual data there are 31 X > columns, one for each day of the month). The values in bold are the > values that are transferred into the small chart below (which is the > result I hope to get). This is to give a sense of how the data is picked > out of the original data frame. > > I would like to organize the data so it looks like this: > > STN_ID YEAR MM DAY ELEM1 ELEM2 > 1 2402594 1997 9 X1 -00233 -00339 > 2 2402594 1997 9 X2 -00204 000077 > 3 2402594 1997 9 X3 -00119 000030 > > Such that I create a new column named "DAY" that is made up of the > numbers following "X" in the original data.frame columns. Also, the ELEM > values are converted to columns and parsed with the ELEM code (in this > case 1 and 2). > > I have tried to split apart the columns, transform them, and bind them > back together, but my ability to do so just isn't there yet. I am still > fairly new to R, and would really appreciate some help in working > towards organizing this data frame. > > Thanks in advance, > Scott Hatcher > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- =============================================== Jon Daily Technician =============================================== #!/usr/bin/env outside # It's great, trust me. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
