Mean values from multiple csv to data frame - r

Question

After having searched for help in different threads on this topic, I still have not become wiser. Therefore: Here comes another question on looping through multiple data files...
OK. I have multiple CSV files in one folder containing 5 columns of data. The filenames are as follows:
Moist yyyymmdd hh_mm_ss.csv
I would like to create a script that reads processes the CSV-files one by one doing the following steps:
1) load file
2) check number of rows and exclude file if less than 3 registrations
3) calculate mean value of all measurements (=rows) for column 2
4) calculate mean value of all measurements (=rows) for column 4
5) output the filename timestamp, mean column 2 and mean column 4 to a data frame,
I have written the following function
moist.each.mean <- function() {
library("tcltk")
directory <- tk_choose.dir("","Choose folder for Humidity data files")
setwd(directory)
filelist <- list.files(path = directory)
filetitles <- regmatches(filelist, regexpr("[0-9].*[0-9]", filelist))
mdf <- data.frame(timestamp=character(), humidity=numeric(), temp=numeric())
for(i in 1:length(filelist)){
file.in[[i]] <- read.csv(filelist[i], header=F)
if (nrow(file.in[[i]]<3)){
print("discard")
} else {
newrow <- c(filetitles[[i]], round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V2),1), round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V4),1))
mdf <- rbind(mdf, newrow)
}
}
names(mdf) <- c("timestamp", "humidity", "temp")
}
but i keep getting an error:
Error in `[[<-.data.frame`(`*tmp*`, i, value = list(V1 = c(10519949L, :
replacement has 18 rows, data has 17
Any ideas?
Thx, kruemelprinz

Answer 1

I'd also suggest to use (l)apply... Here's my take:
getMeans <- function(fpath,runfct,
target_cols = c(2),
sep=",",
dec=".",
header = T,
min_obs_threshold = 3){
f <- list.files(fpath)
fcsv <- f[grepl("\.csv",f)]
fcsv <- paste0(fpath,fcsv)
csv_list <- lapply(fcsv,read.table,sep = sep,
dec = dec, header = header)
csv_rows <- sapply(csv_list,nrow)
rel_csv_list <- csv_list[!(csv_rows < min_obs_threshold)]
lapply(rel_csv_list,function(x) colMeans(x[,target_cols]))
}
Also with that kind of error message, the debugger might be very helpful.
Just run debug(moist.each.mean) and execute the function stepwise.

Answer 2

Here's a slightly different approach. Use lapply to read each csv file, exclude it if necessary, otherwise create a summary. This gives you a list where each element is a data frame summary. Then use rbind to create the final summary data frame.
Without a sample of your data, I can't be sure the code below exactly matches your problem, but hopefully it will be enough to get you where you want to go.
# Get vector of filenames to read
filelist=list.files(path=directory, pattern="csv")
# Read all the csv files into a list and create summaries
df.list = lapply(filelist, function(f) {
file.in = read.csv(f, header=TRUE, stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
# Set to empty data frame if file has less than 3 rows of data
if (nrow(file.in) < 3) {
print(paste("Discard", f))
# Otherwise, capture file timestamp and summarise data frame
} else {
data.frame(timestamp=substr(f, 7, 22),
humidity=round(mean(file.in$V2),1),
temp=round(mean(file.in$V4),1))
}
})
# Bind list into final summary data frame (excluding the list elements
# that don't contain a data frame because they didn't have enough rows
# to be included in the summary)
result = do.call(rbind, df.list[sapply(df.list, is.data.frame)])
One issue with your original code is that you create a vector of summary results rather than a data frame of results:
c(filetitles[[i]], round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V2),1), round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V4),1)) is a vector with three elements. What you actually want is a data frame with three columns:
data.frame(timestamp=filetitles[[i]],
humidity=round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V2),1),
temp=round(mean(file.in[[i]]$V4),1))

Answer 3

Thanks for the suggestions using lapply. This is definitely of value as it saves a whole lot of code as well! Meanwhile, I managed to fix my original code as well:
library("tcltk")
# directory: path to csv files
directory <-
tk_choose.dir("","Choose folder for Humidity data files")
setwd(directory)
filelist <- list.files(path = directory)
filetitles <-
regmatches(filelist, regexpr("[0-9].*[0-9]", filelist))
mdf <- data.frame()
for (i in 1:length(filelist)) {
file.in <- read.csv(filelist[i], header = F, skipNul = T)
if (nrow(file.in) < 3) {
print("discard")
} else {
newrow <-
matrix(
c(filetitles[[i]], round(mean(file.in$V2, na.rm=T),1), round(mean(file.in$V4, na.rm=T),1)), nrow = 1, ncol =
3, byrow = T
)
mdf <- rbind(mdf, newrow)
}
}
names(mdf) <- c("timestamp", "humidity", "temp")
Only I did not get it to work as a function because then I would only have one row in mdf containing the last file data. Somehow it did not add rows but overwrite row 1 with each iteration. But using it without a function wrapper worked fine...