Hello,

I have a large data frame that is organized by date in a peculiar way. I 
am seeking advice on how to transform the data into a format that is of 
more use to me.

The data is organized as follows:

     STN_ID YEAR MM ELEM      X1         X2       X3         X4        
X5        X6         X7
1  2402594 1997   9   1 *-00233* *-00204* *-00119*  -00190  -00251  
-00243  -00249
2  2402594 1997  10  1              -00003  -00005  -00001  -00039  
-00031  -00036  -00033
3  2402594 1997  11  1              000025  000065  000070  000069  
000115  000072  000093
4  2402594 1997  12  1              000160  000114  000143  000140  
000093  000068  000157
5  2402594 1998  1    1              000067  000095  000139  000113  
000066  000081  000070
6  2402594 1998  2    1              000098  000102  000140  000124  
000082  000111  000047
7  2402594 1998  3    1              -00039  -00006  000015  000015  
000016  000035  000013
8  2402594 1998  4    1              -00035  -00046  -00046  -00062  
-00018  -00025  -00012
9  2402594 1998  5    1              000031  000011  -00005  -00061  
-00061  -00080  -00217
10 2402594 1997  9    2 *-00339  -00339  -00343*  -00346  -00285  
-00253  -00253
11 2402594 1997  10  2              -00207  -00289  -00278  -00271  
-00258  -00315  -00341
12 2402594 1997  11  2              -00242  -00230  -00206  -00180  
-00256  -00227  -00241
13 2402594 1997  12  2              -00155  -00153  -00118  -00066  
-00088  -00073  -00032
14 2402594 1998  1    2              000003  -00021  -00033  -00022  
-00014  000001  000008
15 2402594 1998  2    2              000050  000077  000106  000073  
000060  000060  000083
16 2402594 1998  3    2              000095  000063  000030  000057  
000073  000144  000090
17 2402594 1998  4    2              000128  000178  000195  000157  
000160  000160  000117
18 2402594 1998  5    2              000074  000064  000051  000027  
000053  000063  000067

Where "MM" is the month of the year, and ELEM is the variable to which 
the values in the X* columns describe (in the actual data there are 31 X 
columns, one for each day of the month). The values in bold are the 
values that are transferred into the small chart below (which is the 
result I hope to get). This is to give a sense of how the data is picked 
out of the original data frame.

I would like to organize the data so it looks like this:

       STN_ID YEAR MM DAY    ELEM1 ELEM2
1     2402594 1997   9  X1       -00233 -00339
2     2402594 1997   9  X2       -00204 000077
3     2402594 1997   9  X3       -00119 000030

Such that I create a new column named "DAY" that is made up of the 
numbers following "X" in the original data.frame columns. Also, the ELEM 
values are converted to columns and parsed with the ELEM code (in this 
case 1 and 2).

I have tried to split apart the columns, transform them, and bind them 
back together, but my ability to do so just isn't there yet. I am still 
fairly new to R, and would really appreciate some help in working 
towards organizing this data frame.

Thanks in advance,
Scott Hatcher

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

