[R] Code is too slow: mean-centering variables in a data frame by subgroup

Dimitri Liakhovitski ld7631 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 30 18:47:40 CEST 2010


Dear Charles, thank you so much!
On my example data frame you code takes 0 sec and mine - 0.05 sec - a
huge difference even if 0 = 0.04 sec.
Dimitri


On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:30 PM, Dimitri Liakhovitski <ld7631 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks a lot, Charles - I'll try your approach.
> Yes - don't worry about dividing by negative means - in real data all
> values are positive.
> Dimitri
>
> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Charles C. Berry <cberry at tajo.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Mar 2010, Dimitri Liakhovitski wrote:
>>
>>> Dear R-ers,
>>>
>>> I have  a large data frame (several thousands of rows and about 2.5
>>> thousand columns). One variable ("group") is a grouping variable with
>>> over 30 levels. And I have a lot of NAs.
>>> For each variable, I need to divide each value by variable mean - by
>>> subgroup. I have the code but it's way too slow - takes me about 1.5
>>> hours.
>>> Below is a data example and my code that is too slow. Is there a
>>> different, faster way of doing the same thing?
>>> Thanks a lot for your advice!
>>>
>>> Dimitri
>>>
>>>
>>> # Building an example frame - with groups and a lot of NAs:
>>> set.seed(1234)
>>>
>>> frame<-data.frame(group=rep(paste("group",1:10),10),a=rnorm(1:100),b=rnorm(1:100),c=rnorm(1:100),d=rnorm(1:100),e=rnorm(1:100),f=rnorm(1:100),g=rnorm(1:100))
>>
>>
>> Use model.matrix and crossprod to do this in a vectorized fashion:
>>
>>> mat <- as.matrix(frame[,-1])
>>> mm <- model.matrix(~0+group,frame)
>>> col.grp.N <- crossprod( !is.na(mat), mm )
>>> mat[is.na(mat)] <- 0.0
>>> col.grp.sum <- crossprod( mat, mm )
>>> mat <- mat / ( t(col.grp.sum/col.grp.N)[ frame$group,] )
>>> is.na(mat) <- is.na(frame[,-1])
>>>
>>
>> mat is now a matrix whose columns each correspond to the columns in 'frame'
>> as you have it after do.call(...)
>>
>>
>> Are you sure you want to divide the values by their (possibly negative)
>> means??
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> Chuck
>>
>>
>>
>>> frame<-frame[order(frame$group),]
>>> names.used<-names(frame)[2:length(frame)]
>>> set.seed(1234)
>>> for(i in names.used){
>>>      i.for.NA<-sample(1:100,60)
>>>      frame[[i]][i.for.NA]<-NA
>>> }
>>> frame
>>>
>>> ### Code that does what's needed but is too slow:
>>> Start<-Sys.time()
>>> frame <- do.call(cbind, lapply(names.used, function(x){
>>>  unlist(by(frame, frame$group, function(y) y[,x] / mean(y[,x],na.rm=T)))
>>> }))
>>> Finish<-Sys.time()
>>> print(Finish-Start) # Takes too long
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dimitri Liakhovitski
>>> Ninah.com
>>> Dimitri.Liakhovitski at ninah.com
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at 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.
>>>
>>
>> Charles C. Berry                            (858) 534-2098
>>                                            Dept of Family/Preventive
>> Medicine
>> E mailto:cberry at tajo.ucsd.edu               UC San Diego
>> http://famprevmed.ucsd.edu/faculty/cberry/  La Jolla, San Diego 92093-0901
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Dimitri Liakhovitski
> Ninah.com
> Dimitri.Liakhovitski at ninah.com
>



-- 
Dimitri Liakhovitski
Ninah.com
Dimitri.Liakhovitski at ninah.com



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