[R] generating new vector based on criteria from other vectors

[arun]

Hi,

dat1<- read.table(text="
x1      x2      x3     
a1     b2       2
a1     b4       4
a2     NA      3 
NA     b2      6 
a3      b1       NA
a1     b2       9
a1     b2       NA
a1     b4       2
",sep="",header=TRUE,stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
   dat2<- dat1
 dat2$x4<-with(dat2,ave(x3,x1,x2,FUN=function(x) mean(x,na.rm=TRUE)))
  dat2
#    x1   x2 x3  x4
#1   a1   b2  2 5.5
#2   a1   b4  4 3.0
#3   a2 <NA>  3 3.0
#4 <NA>   b2  6 6.0
#5   a3   b1 NA NaN
#6   a1   b2  9 5.5
#7   a1   b2 NA 5.5
#8   a1   b4  2 3.0


A.K.


>My data contains the following x1 x2 x3 vectors and I want to create a 
new vector x4 by performing calculations on x3 based on criteria from x1 and >x2. The data contains missing values. 
>
>x1      x2      x3        x4 
>a1     b2       2        mean(x3) when x1=a1 and x2=b2 
>a1     b4       4        mean(x3) when x1=a1 and x2=b4 
>a2     NA      3         NA 
>NA     b2      6          NA 
>a3      b1       NA      mean(x3) when x1=a3 and x2=b1 
>a1     b2       9         mean(x3) when x1=a1 and x2=b2 
 >:          :         :   
>
>
>That is I am willing to create a group mean vector and the group means will correspond to the members of that group. 
>stata handles this with a "by" option. Can I create such vectors based on conditional calculations in R ?