multi-conditional statement by group - r

Question

I've got a simple dataset.
structure(list(ID = c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 4L,
4L, 5L, 5L), Primrely = c(0L, 2L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 3L, 4L, 4L,
3L, 1L, 2L, 2L), Primset = c(-4L, -3L, 1L, 2L, -4L, 5L, 3L, 1L,
2L, -4L, -2L, -3L, 3L), Primvalue = c(45L, 5L, 6L, 15L, 53L,
45L, 44L, 65L, 1L, 5L, 1L, 12L, 5L), Secrely = c(5L, 7L, 2L,
1L, 2L, 0L, 4L, 5L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 0L, 2L), Secset = c(-3L, 1L,
2L, -2L, -3L, 2L, 5L, 7L, 7L, 4L, 3L, 2L, 1L), Secvalue = c(38L,
-2L, -1L, 8L, 46L, 38L, 37L, 58L, -6L, -2L, -6L, 5L, -2L), Desired = structure(c(NA,
1L, NA, NA, 2L, 2L, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, 1L), .Label = c("Primary",
"Secondary"), class = "factor")), .Names = c("ID", "Primrely",
"Primset", "Primvalue", "Secrely", "Secset", "Secvalue", "Desired"
), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -13L))
ID Primrely Primset Primvalue Secrely Secset Secvalue Desired
1 1 0 -4 45 5 -3 38 <NA>
2 1 2 -3 5 7 1 -2 Primary
3 1 1 1 6 2 2 -1 <NA>
4 1 1 2 15 1 -2 8 <NA>
5 2 1 -4 53 2 -3 46 Secondary
6 2 1 5 45 0 2 38 Secondary
7 2 3 3 44 4 5 37 <NA>
8 3 4 1 65 5 7 58 <NA>
9 4 4 2 1 1 7 -6 <NA>
10 4 3 -4 5 1 4 -2 <NA>
11 4 1 -2 1 1 3 -6 <NA>
12 5 2 -3 12 0 2 5 Primary
13 5 2 3 5 2 1 -2 Primary
For each ID, I'd like to select rows that meet the criteria (Prim = primary, Sec = secondary): If Primrely is 0 or 2 and Primset is -3:3, select all rows for each ID. If no rows for a given ID meet the primary criteria, select rows that meet the secondary criteria (Secrely is 0 or 2 and Secset is -3:3). Ideally, I'd like to add a column (Desired) that indicate which criteria was met (primary/secondary/NA).
I've been working with ifelse and if else functions without much luck mainly because I don't know how to command R to ingore a given ID if the primary criteria was already met (eg ID #1 meets the second criteria but doesn't need it because it already met the first criteria). In other words, if a 'primary' shows up in a given ID, it trumps all the 'secondary' criteria that were met. I would appreciate any advice.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly now:
(left in the steps to show you what I was doing, you can remove them and/or do this all in one step if you want)
dat <- structure(list(ID = c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 4L,
4L, 5L, 5L), Primrely = c(0L, 2L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 3L, 4L, 4L,
3L, 1L, 2L, 2L), Primset = c(-4L, -3L, 1L, 2L, -4L, 5L, 3L, 1L,
2L, -4L, -2L, -3L, 3L), Primvalue = c(45L, 5L, 6L, 15L, 53L,
45L, 44L, 65L, 1L, 5L, 1L, 12L, 5L), Secrely = c(5L, 7L, 2L,
1L, 2L, 0L, 4L, 5L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 0L, 2L), Secset = c(-3L, 1L,
2L, -2L, -3L, 2L, 5L, 7L, 7L, 4L, 3L, 2L, 1L), Secvalue = c(38L,
-2L, -1L, 8L, 46L, 38L, 37L, 58L, -6L, -2L, -6L, 5L, -2L), Desired = structure(c(NA,
1L, NA, NA, 2L, 2L, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, 1L), .Label = c("Primary",
"Secondary"), class = "factor")), .Names = c("ID", "Primrely",
"Primset", "Primvalue", "Secrely", "Secset", "Secvalue", "Desired"
), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -13L))
within(dat, {
Desired_step1 <- ifelse(Primrely %in% c(0,2) & Primset %in% -3:3,
1, ifelse(Secrely %in% c(0,2) & Secset %in% -3:3,
2, 3))
Desired_new <- factor(ave(Desired_step1, ID, FUN = function(x)
ifelse(x == min(x), x, NA)),
levels = 1:3, labels = c('Primary', 'Secondary', 'NA'))
Desired_step1 <- c('1'='Primary','2'='Secondary','3'=NA)[Desired_step1]
})
# ID Primrely Primset Primvalue Secrely Secset Secvalue Desired Desired_new Desired_step1
# 1 1 0 -4 45 5 -3 38 <NA> <NA> <NA>
# 2 1 2 -3 5 7 1 -2 Primary Primary Primary
# 3 1 1 1 6 2 2 -1 <NA> <NA> Secondary
# 4 1 1 2 15 1 -2 8 <NA> <NA> <NA>
# 5 2 1 -4 53 2 -3 46 Secondary Secondary Secondary
# 6 2 1 5 45 0 2 38 Secondary Secondary Secondary
# 7 2 3 3 44 4 5 37 <NA> <NA> <NA>
# 8 3 4 1 65 5 7 58 <NA> NA <NA>
# 9 4 4 2 1 1 7 -6 <NA> NA <NA>
# 10 4 3 -4 5 1 4 -2 <NA> NA <NA>
# 11 4 1 -2 1 1 3 -6 <NA> NA <NA>
# 12 5 2 -3 12 0 2 5 Primary Primary Primary
# 13 5 2 3 5 2 1 -2 Primary Primary Primary

Answer 2

Here's my quick & dirty solution assuming your data.frame is named df. You can refine it yourself I think:
df$Desired <- ifelse((df$Primrely==0 | df$Primrely==2) & (df$Primset >= -3 & df$Primset <= 3),
"Primary",
NA)
idx <- is.na(df$Desired)
df$Desired[idx] <- ifelse((df$Secrely[idx]==0 | df$Secrely[idx]==2) & (df$Secset[idx] >= -3 & df$Secset[idx] <= 3),
"Secondary",
NA)