[R] Using apply to get group means

[baptiste auguie]

Not exactly the output you asked for, but perhaps you can consider,

library(doBy)
 > summaryBy(x3~x2+x1,data=x,FUN=mean)
>   x2 x1 x3.mean
> 1  1  A     1.5
> 2  1  B     2.0
> 3  1  C     3.5
> 4  2  A     4.0
> 5  2  B     5.5
> 6  2  C     6.0


the plyr package also provides similar functionality, as do the ?by, ? 
ave, and ?tapply base functions.

HTH,

baptiste


On 31 Mar 2009, at 17:09, Alan Cohen wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to improve my R skills and make my programming more  
> efficient and succinct.  I can solve the following question, but  
> wonder if there's a better way to do it:
>
> I'm trying to calculate mean by several variables and then put this  
> back into the original data set as a new variable.  For example, if  
> I were measuring weight, I might want to have each individual's  
> weight, and also the group mean by, say, race, sex, and geographic  
> region.  The following code works:
>
>> x1<-rep(c("A","B","C"),3)
>> x2<-c(rep(1,3),rep(2,3),1,2,1)
>> x3<-c(1,2,3,4,5,6,2,6,4)
>> x<-as.data.frame(cbind(x1,x2,x3))
>> x3.mean<-rep(0,nrow(x))
>> for (i in 1:nrow(x)){
> +   x3.mean[i]<-mean(as.numeric(x[,3][x[,1]==x[,1][i]&x[,2]==x[,2] 
> [i]]))
> +   }
>> cbind(x,x3.mean)
>  x1 x2 x3 x3.mean
> 1  A  1  1     1.5
> 2  B  1  2     2.0
> 3  C  1  3     3.5
> 4  A  2  4     4.0
> 5  B  2  5     5.5
> 6  C  2  6     6.0
> 7  A  1  2     1.5
> 8  B  2  6     5.5
> 9  C  1  4     3.5
>
> However, I'd love to be able to do this with "apply" rather than a  
> for-loop.  Or is there a built-in function? Any suggestions?
>
> Also, any way to avoid the hassles with having to convert to a data  
> frame and then again to numeric when one variable is character?
>
> Cheers,
> Alan Cohen
>
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_____________________________

Baptiste Auguié

School of Physics
University of Exeter
Stocker Road,
Exeter, Devon,
EX4 4QL, UK

Phone: +44 1392 264187

http://newton.ex.ac.uk/research/emag