Coercing previously defined variables using set() from data.table - r

I was wondering what causes the following behavior that surprised me a bit - I defined a data table dt_3, then defined dt_1 to be equal to dt_3. When I then used set() to replace row elements in dt_1, the corresponding elements of dt_3 were changed as well:
refcols=c("A","B")
dt_3 = data.table(A=c(1,1,3,5,6,7), B = c("x","y","z","q","w","e"), C = rep("NO",6))
dt_2 = data.table(A=c(3,5,7), B = c("z","q","x"), D=c(3,5,99))
dt_1 = dt_3
dt_3
A B C
1: 1 x NO
2: 1 y NO
3: 3 z NO
4: 5 q NO
5: 6 w NO
6: 7 e NO
for(j in refcols){
set(dt_1,2,j,dt_2[3,get(j)])
}
Warning messages:
1: In set(dt_1, 2, j, dt_2[3, get(j)]) :
Coerced i from numeric to integer. Please pass integer for efficiency; e.g., 2L rather than 2
2: In set(dt_1, 2, j, dt_2[3, get(j)]) :
Coerced i from numeric to integer. Please pass integer for efficiency; e.g., 2L rather than 2
dt_3
A B C
1: 1 x NO
2: 7 x NO
3: 3 z NO
4: 5 q NO
5: 6 w NO
6: 7 e NO
What is causing this and is there an easier way to subset by explicit row indices for specific columns like this?

We can use copy so that when we replace the elements in one dataset, the other wont' change
dt_1<- copy(dt_3)
Regarding the second part, it is not very clear about the row index. If it is only based on the column index
for(j in refcols){
set(dt_1, i=NULL, j=j, value=dt_2[[j]])
}
dt_1
# A B C
#1: 3 z NO
#2: 5 q NO
#3: 7 x NO
#4: 3 z NO
#5: 5 q NO
#6: 7 x NO
If the 2nd row of the "A" and "B" column in 'dt_1' should be replaced by the 3rd row of 'dt_2' for corresponding columns (based on 'refcols')
for(j in refcols){
set(dt_1, i=2L, j=j, value=dt_2[[j]][3])
}
dt_1
# A B C
#1: 1 x NO
#2: 7 x NO
#3: 3 z NO
#4: 5 q NO
#5: 6 w NO
#6: 7 e NO

Related

Manipulating data.table column recursively on other column condition

I need to calculate a formula in a data frame. Each set of values across few columns have to be, lets say simplicity sake, aggregated. However, I do not want calculation across rows. I want to calculate each set with another set based on condition else where.
This is what I mean:
I have a data.table.
data = data.table(A = c("a","c","b","b","a"),
B = c(1:5),
C = c(1:5)
)
setorder(data, by=A)
> data
A B C
1: a 1 1
2: a 5 5
3: b 3 3
4: b 4 4
5: c 2 2
In column D I need to have and aggregate of values in B and C and values B and C when A is "a". As I have more than one "a", multiple aggregations are needed. From every aggregate minimum should be written in.
Here is an example.
For row 1: (1+1)+(1+1)=4, (5+5)+(1+1)=12, so 4 is minimum - D1 =4.
For row 3: (3+3)+(1+1)=8, (3+3)+(5+5)=16, D3 = 8. And so on.
This is what I expect
> data_new
A B C D
1: a 1 1 4
2: a 5 5 12
3: b 3 3 8
4: b 4 4 10
5: c 2 2 6
I tried this and run into issues.
for (i in data)data[i, D:=(min((data[i,B+C]) + (data[a=="a",(B+C)])))]
The expression below for minimum selection works fine on its own when I substitute i for a row number returning list of two numbers for min() returns proper value. Below answer is 8.
min((data[3,B+C]) + (data[A=="a",(B+C)]))
My previous attempts involved grid.expansion() and intersection(). However, with the size of my data set I ran into memory issue and Rstudio quit on me. As a side note, I need to run the calculations as I could not project the smallest outcome by "a" beforehand - it is a set of coordinates and they do not correlate with the magnitude of an answer.
Any suggestion where is my glaring issue
You can store the value of B + C where A = 'a' in a variable (val). For each row you can take minimum of B + C + val value.
library(data.table)
val <- data[A =='a', B + C]
data[, D := min(B + C + val), seq_len(nrow(data))]
data
# A B C D
#1: a 1 1 4
#2: a 5 5 12
#3: b 3 3 8
#4: b 4 4 10
#5: c 2 2 6
You can also use lapply :
data[, D := lapply(B + C, function(x) min(x + val))]
An option is also to replicate the 'a' rows after taking the min of 'B', 'C' and then do a direct + with the 'B', 'C' columns. The advantage is that, we don't have to group or loop
library(data.table)
Reduce(`+`, (data[A == 'a', .(B = min(B), C = min(C))][rep(seq_len(.N), nrow(data))] + data[, .(B, C)]))
#[1] 4 12 8 10 6
Or in a single line
data[, D := B + C + min(B[A== 'a']) + min(C[A== 'a'])]
data$D
#[1] 4 12 8 10 6

Group a data.table using a column which is list

I have a really big problem and looping through the data.table to do what I want is too slow, so I am trying to get around looping. Let assume I have a data.table as follows:
a <- data.table(i = c(1,2,3), j = c(2,2,6), k = list(c("a","b"),c("a","c"),c("b")))
> a
i j k
1: 1 2 a,b
2: 2 2 a,c
3: 3 6 b
And I want to group based on the values in k. So something like this:
a[, sum(j), by = k]
right now I am getting the following error:
Error in `[.data.table`(a, , sum(i), by = k) :
The items in the 'by' or 'keyby' list are length (2,2,1). Each must be same length as rows in x or number of rows returned by i (3).
The answer I am looking for is to group first all the rows having "a" in column k and calculate sum(j) and then all rows having "b" and so on. So the desired answer would be:
k V1
a 4
b 8
c 2
Any hint how to do it efficiently? I cant melt the column K by repeating the rows since the size of the data.table would be too big for my case.
I think this might work:
a[, .(k = unlist(k)), by=.(i,j)][,sum(j),by=k]
k V1
1: a 4
2: b 8
3: c 2
If we are using tidyr, a compact option would be
library(tidyr)
unnest(a, k)[, sum(j) ,k]
# k V1
#1: a 4
#2: b 8
#3: c 2
Or using the dplyr/tidyr pipes
unnest(a, k) %>%
group_by(k) %>%
summarise(V1 = sum(j))
# k V1
# <chr> <dbl>
#1 a 4
#2 b 8
#3 c 2
Since by-group operations can be slow, I'd consider...
dat = a[rep(1:.N, lengths(k)), c(.SD, .(k = unlist(a$k))), .SDcols=setdiff(names(a), "k")]
i j k
1: 1 2 a
2: 1 2 b
3: 2 2 a
4: 2 2 c
5: 3 6 b
We're repeating rows of cols i:j to match the unlisted k. The data should be kept in this format instead of using a list column, probably. From there, as in #MikeyMike's answer, we can dat[, sum(j), by=k].
In data.table 1.9.7+, we can similarly do
dat = a[, c(.SD[rep(.I, lengths(k))], .(k = unlist(k))), .SDcols=i:j]

Inline ifelse assignment in data.table

Let the following data set be given:
library('data.table')
set.seed(1234)
DT <- data.table(x = LETTERS[1:10], y =sample(10))
my.rows <- sample(1:dim(DT)[1], 3)
I want to add a new column to the data set such that, whenever the rows of the data set match the row numbers given by my.rows the entry is populated with, say, true, or false otherwise.
I have got DT[my.rows, z:= "true"], which gives
head(DT)
x y z
1: A 2 NA
2: B 6 NA
3: C 5 true
4: D 8 NA
5: E 9 true
6: F 4 NA
but I do not know how to automatically populate the else condition as well, at the same time. I guess I should make use of some sort of inline ifelse but I am lacking the correct syntax.
We can compare the 'my.rows' with the sequence of row using %in% to create a logical vector and assign (:=) it to create 'z' column.
DT[, z:= 1:.N %in% my.rows ]
Or another option would be to create 'z' as a column of 'FALSE', using 'my.rows' as 'i', we assign the elements in 'z' that correspond to 'i' as 'TRUE'.
DT[, z:= FALSE][my.rows, z:= TRUE]
DT <- cbind(DT,z = ifelse(DT[, .I] %in% my.rows , T, NA))
> DT
# x y z
# 1: A 2 NA
# 2: B 6 NA
# 3: C 5 TRUE
# 4: D 8 NA
# 5: E 9 TRUE
# 6: F 4 NA
# 7: G 1 TRUE
# 8: H 7 NA
# 9: I 10 NA
#10: J 3 NA

Unlist nested list columns in data.table

Unlist nested list column in data.table. Assuming all the list elements are the same type. The list elements are named, the name has to be handled also.
It is somehow opposite operation to data.table aggregation to list column.
I think it is worth to have it in SO data.table knowledge base.
My current workaround approach below, I'm looking for a little bit more canonical answer.
library(data.table)
dt <- data.table(
a = letters[1:3],
l = list(list(c1=6L, c2=4L), list(x=2L, y=4L, z=3L), list())
)
dt[]
# a l
# 1: a <list>
# 2: b <list>
# 3: c <list>
dt[,.(a = rep(a,length(l)),
nm = names(unlist(l)),
ul = unlist(l)),
.(id = seq_along(a))
][, id := NULL
][]
# a nm ul
# 1: a c1 6
# 2: a c2 4
# 3: b x 2
# 4: b y 4
# 5: b z 3
# 6: c NA NA
Not sure it is more "canonical" but here is a way to modify l so you can use by=a, considering you know the type of your data in list (with some improvements, thanks to #DavidArenburg):
dt[lengths(l) == 0, l := NA_integer_][, .(nm = names(unlist(l)), ul = unlist(l)), by = a]
# a nm ul
#1: a c1 6
#2: a c2 4
#3: b x 2
#4: b y 4
#5: b z 3
#6: c NA NA

Using .BY with a lookup table--unexpected results

I'd like to create a variable in dt according to a lookup table k. I'm getting some unexpected results depending on how I extract the variable of interest in k.
dt <- data.table(x=c(1:10))
setkey(dt, x)
k <- data.table(x=c(1:5,10), b=c(letters[1:5], "d"))
setkey(k, x)
dt[,b:=k[.BY, list(b)],by=x]
dt #unexpected results
# x b
# 1: 1 1
# 2: 2 2
# 3: 3 3
# 4: 4 4
# 5: 5 5
# 6: 6 6
# 7: 7 7
# 8: 8 8
# 9: 9 9
# 10: 10 10
dt <- data.table(x=c(1:10))
setkey(x, x)
dt[,b:=k[.BY]$b,by=x]
dt #expected results
# x b
# 1: 1 a
# 2: 2 b
# 3: 3 c
# 4: 4 d
# 5: 5 e
# 6: 6 NA
# 7: 7 NA
# 8: 8 NA
# 9: 9 NA
# 10: 10 d
Can anyone explain why this is happening?
You don't have to use by=. here at all.
First solution:
Set appropriate keys and use X[Y] syntax from data.table:
require(data.table)
dt <- data.table(x=c(1:10))
setkey(dt, "x")
k <- data.table(x=c(1:5,10), b=c(letters[1:5], "d"))
setkey(k, "x")
k[dt]
# x b
# 1: 1 a
# 2: 2 b
# 3: 3 c
# 4: 4 d
# 5: 5 e
# 6: 6 NA
# 7: 7 NA
# 8: 8 NA
# 9: 9 NA
# 10: 10 d
OP said that this creates a new data.table and it is undesirable for him.
Second solution
Again, without by:
dt <- data.table(x=c(1:10))
setkey(dt, "x")
k <- data.table(x=c(1:5,10), b=c(letters[1:5], "d"))
setkey(k, "x")
# solution
dt[k, b := i.b]
This does not create a new data.table and gives the solution you're expecting.
To explain why the unexpected result happens:
For the first case you do, dt[,b:=k[.BY, list(b)],by=x]. Here, k[.BY, list(b)] itself returns a data.table. For example:
k[list(x=1), list(b)]
# x b
# 1: 1 a
So, basically, if you would do:
k[list(x=dt$x), list(b)]
That would give you the desired solution as well. To answer why you get what you get when you do b := k[.BY, list(b)], since, the RHS returns a data.table and you're assigning a variable to it, it takes the first element and drops the rest. For example, do this:
dt[, c := dt[1], by=x]
# you'll get the whole column to be 1
For the second case, to understand why it works, you'll have to know the subtle difference between, accessing a data.table as k[6] and k[list(6)], for example:
In the first case, k[6], you are accessing the 6th element of k, which is 10 d. But in the second case, you're asking for a J, join. So, it searches for x = 6 (key column) and since there isn't any in k, it returns 6 NA. In your case, since you use k[.BY] which returns a list, it is a J operation, which fetches the right value.
I hope this helps.

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