replace missing column values with values from 'matching' columns

Question

This is a follow-up question from replace missing values with a value from another column which was adequately solved. My problem is with regards to multiple matching columns.

Example dataset:

s <- data.frame(ID=c(191, 282, 202, 210), 
            Group.1=c(NA, "A", NA, "B"), 
            Back.1=c("DD", "AA", "DD", "BB"), 
            Group.2=c("D","A", NA, "B"),
            Back.2=c("DD", "BB", "CC", "AA"),
            stringsAsFactors=FALSE)

   ID Group.1 Back.1 Group.2 Back.2
1 191    <NA>     DD       D     DD
2 282       A     AA       A     BB
3 202    <NA>     DD    <NA>     CC
4 210       B     BB       B     AA

If I wanted to replace the NAs with matching 'Back' columns I would use:

s$Group.1 <- ifelse(test = !is.na(s$Group.1), yes = s$Group.1, no = s$Back.1)
s$Group.2 <- ifelse(test = !is.na(s$Group.2), yes = s$Group.2, no = s$Back.2)
s

   ID Group.1 Back.1 Group.2 Back.2
1 191      DD     DD       D     DD
2 282       A     AA       A     BB
3 202      DD     DD      CC     CC
4 210       B     BB       B     AA

As posted by Akrun, another approach would be:

library(data.table)
setDT(s)[is.na(Group.1), Group.1:= Back.1]
setDT(s)[is.na(Group.2), Group.2:= Back.2]

So if I have many matching columns I want to be able to map, loop or apply or whatever across them. Trying out a loop functions yields:

for (i in 1:2){
  s[paste0("Group.", i)] <- ifelse(test = !is.na(s[paste0("Group.", i)]), 
                                   yes = s[paste0("Group.", i)], 
                                   no = s[paste0("Back.", i)])
}

Warning messages:
1: In `[<-.data.frame`(`*tmp*`, paste0("Group.", i), value = list(c("DD",  :
  provided 4 variables to replace 1 variables
2: In `[<-.data.frame`(`*tmp*`, paste0("Group.", i), value = list(c("D",  :
  provided 4 variables to replace 1 variables
> s
   ID Group.1 Back.1 Group.2 Back.2
1 191      DD     DD       D     DD
2 282      AA     AA       A     BB
3 202      DD     DD    <NA>     CC
4 210      BB     BB       B     AA

Which appears to work for Group.1 and Back.1 but not Group.2, and the warning message is difficult to understand from my angle.

If someone can solve this with an appropriate loop would be most grateful. Even more helpful would be the ability to generalize to other named columns so that the numerically matching columns to Back.x can also have missing values imputed by Back.x. i.e.

s <- data.frame(ID=c(191, 282, 202, 210), 
            Group.1=c(NA, "A", NA, "B"), 
            Back.1=c("DD", "AA", "DD", "BB"), 
            Group.2=c("D","A", NA, "B"),
            Back.2=c("DD", "BB", "CC", "AA"),
            Donk.1 =c("PP", "ZZ", NA, "QQ"),
            stringsAsFactors=FALSE)

It will infinitely easier if you do this in long format `long — thelatemail, Feb 28 '17 at 06:28
Sorry @waterling picked up back.1 is added twice. Should only be once. Will edit later — mkrasmus, Feb 28 '17 at 06:40
It is not clear in the last example which one should replace from which columns? You have Back.1, Back.2 and Back.1.1 while there is Group.1, Group.2, and Donk.1 — akrun, Feb 28 '17 at 07:04

akrun · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-28T07:17:12.640

1

We can use

gr1 <- grep("Group", names(s), value = TRUE)
bc1 <- grep("Back", names(s), value = TRUE)
setDT(s)
for(j in seq_along(gr1)){
    s[is.na(get(gr1[j])), (gr1[j]) := get(bc1[j])]
}

s
#    ID Group.1 Back.1 Group.2 Back.2
#1: 191      DD     DD       D     DD
#2: 282       A     AA       A     BB
#3: 202      DD     DD      CC     CC
#4: 210       B     BB       B     AA

For the updated dataset

gr1 <- names(s)[seq(2, ncol(s), by = 2)]
bc1 <- names(s)[seq(3, ncol(s), by = 2)]

setDT(s)
for(j in seq_along(gr1)){
    s[is.na(get(gr1[j])), (gr1[j]) := get(bc1[j])][]
}
s
#    ID Group.1 Back.1 Group.2 Back.2 Donk.1 Back.1.1
#1: 191      DD     DD       D     DD     PP       DD
#2: 282       A     AA       A     BB     ZZ       AA
#3: 202      DD     DD      CC     CC     DD       DD
#4: 210       B     BB       B     AA     QQ       BB

data

s <- data.frame(ID=c(191, 282, 202, 210), 
        Group.1=c(NA, "A", NA, "B"), 
        Back.1=c("DD", "AA", "DD", "BB"), 
        Group.2=c("D","A", NA, "B"),
        Back.2=c("DD", "BB", "CC", "AA"),
        Donk.1 =c("PP", "ZZ", NA, "QQ"),
        Back.1=c("DD", "AA", "DD", "BB"), 
        stringsAsFactors=FALSE)

edited Feb 28 '17 at 07:17

answered Feb 28 '17 at 06:37

akrun

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Replace gr1 with `gr1 – Jean Feb 28 '17 at 06:49
@waterling Sorry, I didn't understand why it was needed. I was trying based on the logic `setDT(s)[is.na(Group.1), Group.1:= Back.1]` provided in the OP's code – akrun Feb 28 '17 at 06:57
OP wants to be able to replace `Donk.1` with `Back.1`, or some `arbitrarytext.Number` with `Back.Number`. From the sentence: "generalize to other named columns so that the numerically matching columns to Back.x can also have missing values imputed by Back.x" – Jean Feb 28 '17 at 06:59
@waterling Thanks I missed that part. I updated the post assuming that the columns are alternating – akrun Feb 28 '17 at 07:18

replace missing column values with values from 'matching' columns

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