Count rows based on multiple consecutive time flows - r

Question

I have a large file of time-series data, which looks as follows. The dataset covers years, in increments of 15 minutes. A small subset looks like:
uniqueid time
a 2014-04-30 23:30:00
a 2014-04-30 23:45:00
a 2014-05-01 00:00:00
a 2014-05-01 00:15:00
a 2014-05-12 13:45:00
a 2014-05-12 14:00:00
b 2014-05-12 13:45:00
b 2014-05-12 14:00:00
b 2014-05-12 14:30:00
To reproduce above:
time<-c("2014-04-30 23:30:00","2014-04-30 23:45:00","2014-05-01 00:00:00","2014-05-01 00:15:00",
"2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00","2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00",
"2014-05-12 14:30:00")
uniqueid<-c("a","a","a","a","a","a","b","b","b")
mydf<-data.frame(uniqueid,time)
My goal is to count the number of rows per unique id, per consecutive timeflow. A consecutive timespan is when a unique id is stamped for each 15 minutes in a row (such as id A, which is stamped from 30.04.14 23.30 hrs until 01.05.14 00.15 hrs - hence 4 rows), yet when this flow of 15-minute iterations is disrupted (after 01.05.14 00:15, it is not stamped at 01.05.14 00:30 hence it is disrupted), it should count the next timestamp as start of a new consecutive timeflow and again calculate the number of rows until this flow is disrupted again. Time is POSIX.
As you can see in above example; a consecutive timeflow may cover different days, different months, or different years. I have many unique ids (and as said, a very large file), so I'm looking for a way that my computer can handle (loops probably wouldn't work).
I am looking for output something like:
uniqueid flow number_rows
a 1 4
a 2 2
b 3 2
b 4 1
I have looked into some time packages (such as lubridate), but given my limited R knowledge, I don't even know where to begin.
I hope all is clear - if not, I'd be happy to try to clarify it further. Thank you very much in advance!

Answer 1

Another way to do this with data.table also using a time difference would be to make use of the data.table internal values for group number and number of rows in each group:
library(data.table)
res<-setDT(mydf)[, list(number_rows=.N,flow=.GRP),
by=.(uniqueid,cumsum(as.numeric(difftime(time,shift(time,1L,type="lag",fill=0))) - 15))][,cumsum:=NULL]
print(res)
uniqueid number_rows flow
1: a 4 1
2: a 2 2
3: b 2 3
4: b 1 4
Also since the sample data you posted didn't align with the subset you posted, I have included my data below:
Data
time<-as.POSIXct(c("2014-04-30 23:30:00","2014-04-30 23:45:00","2014-05-01 00:00:00","2014-05-01 00:15:00",
"2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00","2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00",
"2014-05-12 14:30:00"))
uniqueid<-c("a","a","a","a","a","a","b","b","b")
mydf<-data.frame(uniqueid,time)

Answer 2

You can groupby the uniqueid and the cumulative sum of the difference of time between rows which is not equal to 15 min and that gives the flow id and then a count of rows should give you what you need:
A justification of the logic is whenever the time difference is not equal to 15 within each uniqueid, a new flow process should be generated so we label it as TRUE and combine that with the cumsum, it becomes a new flow id with the following consecutive rows:
library(dplyr)
mydf$time <- as.POSIXct(mydf$time, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
# convert the time column to POSIXct class so that we can apply the diff function correctly
mydf %>% group_by(uniqueid, flow = 1 + cumsum(c(F, diff(time) != 15))) %>%
summarize(num_rows = n())
# Source: local data frame [4 x 3]
# Groups: uniqueid [?]
#
# uniqueid flow num_rows
# <fctr> <dbl> <int>
# 1 a 1 4
# 2 a 2 2
# 3 b 3 2
# 4 b 4 1

Answer 3

Base R is pretty fast. Using crude benchmarking, I found it finished in half the time of DT, and I got tired of waiting for dplyr.
# estimated size of data, years x days x hours x 15mins x uniqueids
5*365*24*4*1000 # = approx 180M
# make data with posixct and characters of 180M rows, mydf is approx 2.5GB in memory
time<-rep(as.POSIXct(c("2014-04-30 23:30:00","2014-04-30 23:45:00","2014-05-01 00:00:00","2014-05-01 00:15:00",
"2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00","2014-05-12 13:45:00","2014-05-12 14:00:00",
"2014-05-12 14:30:00")),times = 20000000)
uniqueid<-rep(as.character(c("a","a","a","a","a","a","b","b","b")),times = 20000000)
mydf<-data.frame(uniqueid,time = time)
rm(time,uniqueid);gc()
Base R:
# assumes that uniqueid's are in groups and in order, and there won't be a followed by b that have the 15 minute "flow"
starttime <- Sys.time()
# find failed flows
mydf$diff <- c(0,diff(mydf$time))
mydf$flowstop <- mydf$diff != 15
# give each flow an id
mydf$flowid <- cumsum(mydf$flowstop)
# clean up vars
mydf$time <- mydf$diff <- mydf$flowstop <- NULL
# find flow length
mydfrle <- rle(mydf$flowid)
# get uniqueid/flowid pairs (unique() is too slow)
mydf <- mydf[!duplicated(mydf$flowid), ]
# append rle and remove separate var
mydf$number_rows <- mydfrle$lengths
rm(mydfrle)
print(Sys.time()-starttime)
# Time difference of 30.39437 secs
data.table:
library(data.table)
starttime <- Sys.time()
res<-setDT(mydf)[, list(number_rows=.N,flow=.GRP),
by=.(uniqueid,cumsum(as.numeric(difftime(time,shift(time,1L,type="lag",fill=0))) - 15))][,cumsum:=NULL]
print(Sys.time()-starttime)
# Time difference of 57.08156 secs
dplyr:
library(dplyr)
# convert the time column to POSIXct class so that we can apply the diff function correctly
starttime <- Sys.time()
mydf %>% group_by(uniqueid, flow = 1 + cumsum(c(F, diff(time) != 15))) %>%
summarize(num_rows = n())
print(Sys.time()-starttime)
# too long, did not finish after a few minutes
I think the assumption of uniqueid's and times being in order is huge, and the other solutions might be able to take advantage of that better. order() is easy enough to do.
I'm not sure about the impact of memory, or of the impact of different data sets that aren't so simple. It should be easy enough to break it into chunks and process if memory is an issue. It takes more code in Base R for sure.

Answer 4

Having both ordered "id" and "time" columns, we could build a single group to operate on by creating a logical vector of indices wherever either "id" changes or "time" is > 15 minutes.
With:
id = as.character(mydf$uniqueid)
tm = mydf$time
find where "id":
id_gr = c(TRUE, id[-1] != id[-length(id)])
and "time":
tm_gr = c(0, difftime(tm[-1], tm[-length(tm)], unit = "mins")) > 15
change and combine them in:
gr = id_gr | tm_gr
which shows wherever either "id" changed or "time" > 15.
And to get the result:
tab = tabulate(cumsum(gr)) ## basically, the only operation per group -- 'n by group'
data.frame(id = id[gr], flow = seq_along(tab), n = tab)
# id flow n
#1 a 1 4
#2 a 2 2
#3 b 3 2
#4 b 4 1
On a larger scale:
set.seed(1821); nid = 1e4
dat = replicate(nid, as.POSIXct("2016-07-07 12:00:00 EEST") +
cumsum(sample(c(1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150, 200, 250, 300), sample(5e2:1e3, 1), TRUE)*60),
simplify = FALSE)
names(dat) = make.unique(rep_len(letters, nid))
dat = data.frame(id = rep(names(dat), lengths(dat)), time = do.call(c, dat))
system.time({
id = as.character(dat$id); tm = dat$time
id_gr = c(TRUE, id[-1] != id[-length(id)])
tm_gr = c(0, difftime(tm[-1], tm[-length(tm)], unit = "mins")) > 15
gr = id_gr | tm_gr
tab = tabulate(cumsum(gr))
ans1 = data.frame(id = id[gr], flow = seq_along(tab), n = tab)
})
# user system elapsed
# 1.44 0.19 1.66
For comparison, included MikeyMike's answer:
library(data.table)
dat2 = copy(dat)
system.time({
ans2 = setDT(dat2)[, list(flow = .GRP, n = .N),
by = .(id, cumsum(as.numeric(difftime(time,
shift(time, 1L, type = "lag", fill = 0),
unit = "mins")) > 15))][, cumsum := NULL]
})
# user system elapsed
# 3.95 0.22 4.26
identical(as.data.table(ans1), ans2)
#[1] TRUE