[R] rbind of multiple data frames by column name, when each data frames can contain different columns

[Stefano Sofia]

Dear R-list users,

for each winter season from 2000 to 2022 I have a data frame collecting for different weather stations snowpack height (Hs), snowfall in the last 24h (Hn) and a validation flag.

Suppose I have these three following data frames


df1 <- data.frame(data_POSIX=seq(as.POSIXct("2000-12-01", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), as.POSIXct("2000-12-05", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), by="1 days"), Station1_Hs = c(30, 40, 50, NA, 55), Station1_Hn = c(10, 20, 10, NA, 5), Station1_flag = c(0, 0, 0, NA, 0), Station2_Hs = c(20, 20, 30, 30, 0), Station2_Hn = c(0, 0, 10, 0, 5), Station2_flag = c(0, 0, 0, 1, 0))


df2 <- data.frame(data_POSIX=seq(as.POSIXct("2001-12-01", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), as.POSIXct("2001-12-05", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), by="1 days"), Station1_Hs = c(50, 60, 70, NA, NA), Station1_Hn = c(20, 20, 20, NA, NA), Station1_flag = c(0, 0, 0, NA, NA), Station3_Hs = c(20, 20, 30, 30, 0), Station3_Hn = c(0, 0, 10, 0, 5), Station3_flag = c(0, 0, 0, 1, 0))


df3 <- data.frame(data_POSIX=seq(as.POSIXct("2002-12-01", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), as.POSIXct("2002-12-05", format="%Y-%m-%d", tz="Etc/GMT-1"), by="1 days"), Station2_Hs = c(50, 60, 70, NA, NA), Station2_Hn = c(20, 20, 20, NA, NA), Station2_flag = c(0, 0, 0, NA, NA), Station3_Hs = c(20, 20, 30, 30, 0), Station3_Hn = c(0, 0, 10, 0, 5), Station3_flag = c(0, 0, 0, 1, 0))


As you can see, each data frame can have different stations loaded.

I would need to call rbind matching data frames by column name (i.e. by station name), keeping in mind that the number of stations loaded in each data frame may differ. The result should be

data_POSIX Station1_Hs Station1_Hn Station1_flag Station2_Hs Station2_Hn Station2_flag Station3_Hs Station3_Hn Station3_flag
2000-12-01 30 10 0 20 0 0 NA NA NA
2000-12-02 40 20 0 20 0 0 NA NA NA
2000-12-03 50 10 0 30 10 0 NA NA NA
2000-12-04 NA NA NA 30 0 0 NA NA NA
2000-12-05 55 5 0 0 5 0 NA NA NA
2001-12-01 50 20 0 NA NA NA 20 0 0
2001-12-02 60 20 0 NA NA NA 20 0 0
2001-12-03 70 20 0 NA NA NA 30 10 0
2001-12-04 NA NA NA NA NA NA 30 0 1
2001-12-05 NA NA NA NA NA NA 0 5 0
2002-12-01 NA NA NA 50 20 0 20 0 0
2002-12-02 NA NA NA 60 20 0 20 0 0
2002-12-03 NA NA NA 70 20 0 30 10 0
2002-12-04 NA NA NA NA NA NA 30 0 1
2002-12-05 NA NA NA NA NA NA 0 5 0

I tried this code

df_list <- list(df1, df2, df3)
allNms <- unique(unlist(lapply(df_list, names)))
do.call(rbind, c(lapply(df_list, function(x) data.frame(c(x, sapply(setdiff(allNms, names(x)), function(y) NA)))), make.row.names=FALSE))

but I get this error:
Error in (function (..., row.names = NULL, check.rows = FALSE, check.names = TRUE,  :
  arguments imply differing number of rows

Could someone please help me?


Thank you for your attention

Stefano


         (oo)
--oOO--( )--OOo--------------------------------------
Stefano Sofia PhD
Civil Protection - Marche Region - Italy
Meteo Section
Snow Section
Via del Colle Ameno 5
60126 Torrette di Ancona, Ancona (AN)
Uff: +39 071 806 7743
E-mail: stefano.sofia using regione.marche.it
---Oo---------oO----------------------------------------

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