[R] Average 2 Columns when possible, or return available value

[Joshua Wiley]

Hello Eric,

I am not sure how your need to use list() will fit in with this, but
for your sample data, this will do the trick.

matrix(rowMeans(DF, na.rm=TRUE), ncol=1)

HTH,

Josh

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 4:08 PM, emorway <emorway at engr.colostate.edu> wrote:
>
> Forum,
>
> Using the following data:
>
> DF<-read.table(textConnection("A B
> 22.60 NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
> 102.00 NA
>  19.20 NA
>  19.20 NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  11.80 NA
>  7.62 NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  75.00 NA
>  NA NA
>  18.30 18.2
>  NA NA
>  NA NA
>  8.44 NA
>  18.00 NA
>  NA NA
>  12.90 NA"),header=T)
> closeAllConnections()
>
> The second column is a duplicate reading of the first column, and when two
> values are available, I would like to average column 1 and 2 (example code
> below).  But if there is only one reading, I would like to retain it, but I
> haven't found a good way to exclude NA's using the following code:
>
> t(as.matrix(aggregate(t(as.matrix(DF)),list(rep(1:1,each=2)),mean)[,-1]))
>
> Currently, row 24 is the only row with a returned value.  I'd like the
> result to return column "A" if it is the only available value, and average
> where possible.  Of course, if both columns are NA, NA is the only possible
> result.
>
> The result I'm after would look like this (row 24 is an avg):
>
>  22.60
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
> 102.00
>  19.20
>  19.20
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>  11.80
>  7.62
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>    NA
>  75.00
>    NA
>  18.25
>    NA
>    NA
>  8.44
>  18.00
>    NA
>  12.90
>
> This is a small example from a much larger data frame, so if you're
> wondering what the deal is with list(), that will come into play for the
> larger problem I'm trying to solve.
>
> Respectfully,
> Eric
> --
> View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Average-2-Columns-when-possible-or-return-available-value-tp2269049p2269049.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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>



-- 
Joshua Wiley
Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
http://www.joshuawiley.com/