This might be of some use : http://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/a-brief-introduction-to-apply-in-r/
Umair Durrani email: umairdurr...@outlook.com > Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 07:30:29 -0800 > From: ron...@gmx.net > To: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: [R] Apply function to one specific column / Alternative to for loop > > Hi guys, I am a total newbie to R, so I hope this isn't a totally dumb > question. I have a dataframe with a title in one row and the corresponding > values in the next rows. Let's take this example: > > test_df <- data.frame(cbind(titel = "", x = 4:5, y = 1:2)) > test_df = rbind(cbind(titel="1.Test", x="", y=""), test_df, > cbind(titel="2.Test", x="", y=""), test_df, cbind(titel="3.Test", x="", > y=""), test_df) > > test_df > titel x y > 1 1.Test > 2 4 1 > 3 5 2 > 4 2.Test > 5 4 1 > 6 5 2 > 7 3.Test > 8 4 1 > 9 5 2 > > What I want to have is: > titel x y > 2 1.Test 4 1 > 3 1.Test 5 2 > 5 2.Test 4 1 > 6 2.Test 5 2 > 8 3.Test 4 1 > 9 3.Test 5 2 > > In my example, the title is in every third line, but in my real data there > is no pattern. Each title has at least one line but can have x lines. > > I was able to solve my problem in a for loop with the following code: > test_df$titel <- as.character(test_df$titel) > for (i in 1:nrow(test_df)) > { > if (nchar(test_df$titel[i])==0){ > test_df$titel[i]=test_df$titel[i-1] > } > } > test_df <- subset(test_df,test_df$x!="") > > > The problem is, I have a lot of data and the for loop is obviously very > slow. Is there a more elegant way to achieve the same? I think I have to use > the apply function, but I don't know how to use it with just one column. > > > > > -- > View this message in context: > http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Apply-function-to-one-specific-column-Alternative-to-for-loop-tp4680566.html > Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ______________________________________________ > 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. [[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.