Automatically changing matrix length and row names - r

Question

My data lengthens each quarter and varies start dates in different data sets.
I have written a code which runs lots of tests and produces forecasts and is automatically documented with graphs and tables of the data.
Everything works fine until the length of data or start date changes because the data in the tables is either not of a correct length or doesnt match up to the correct quarter.
Here is an example:
Test.data <- c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27)
Test.dates <- c("08Q1","08Q2","08Q3","08Q4","09Q1","09Q2","09Q3","09Q4","10Q1","10Q2","10Q3","10Q4","11Q1","11Q2","11Q3","11Q4","12Q1","12Q2","12Q3","12Q4","13Q1","13Q2","13Q3","13Q4","14Q1","14Q2","14Q3")
Test <- matrix(c(Test.data,""),nrow=4,byrow=FALSE)
colnames(Test) <- c("'08","'09","'10","'11","'12","'13","'14")
rownames(Test) <- c("Qtr 1", "Qtr 2", "Qtr 3", "Qtr 4")
Which quite nicely gives:
'08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14
Qtr 1 1 5 9 13 17 21 25
Qtr 2 2 6 10 14 18 22 26
Qtr 3 3 7 11 15 19 23 27
Qtr 4 4 8 12 16 20 24
However then in the next quarter the data will increase by 1 and come up with an error:
Warning message:
In matrix(c(Test.data, ""), nrow = 4, byrow = FALSE) :
data length [29] is not a sub-multiple or multiple of the number of rows [4]
Error in `colnames<-`(`*tmp*`, value = c("'08", "'09", "'10", "'11", "'12", :
length of 'dimnames' [2] not equal to array extent
Or if a data set begins in 08Q2 instead of 08Q1 then the data will all be next to the wrong quarter.
I need to display my data in the specific way of:
'yr1 'yr2 'yr3 ...
Qtr 1
Qtr 2
Qtr 3
Qtr 4
Does anyone have any suggestions on how i can get this to automatically change to fit my data without having to change anything (as very soon it will be joined to a database which will constantly produce results so therefore it cannot be changed each time the data is different lengths)
Thankyou for your help.
Please comment below if you want any more information

Answer 1

Test.data.padded <- as.character(Test.data)
length(Test.data.padded) <- ceiling(length(Test.data.padded) / 4) * 4
Test.data.padded[is.na(Test.data.padded)] <- ""
Test <- matrix(Test.data.padded, nrow=4, byrow=FALSE)
# [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7]
#[1,] "1" "5" "9" "13" "17" "21" "25"
#[2,] "2" "6" "10" "14" "18" "22" "26"
#[3,] "3" "7" "11" "15" "19" "23" "27"
#[4,] "4" "8" "12" "16" "20" "24" ""
Then use a regex to extract the years from your Test.dates.

Answer 2

Not sure if this helps.
library(stringi)
n <- 4
l <- length(Test.data)
m1 <- stri_list2matrix(split(Test.data,as.numeric(gl(l,n,l))), fill='')
nm1 <- do.call(rbind,strsplit(Test.dates, '(?<=[0-9])(?=[Q])', perl=TRUE))
dimnames(m1) <- list(unique(nm1[,2]), unique(nm1[,1]))
m1
# 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
#Q1 "1" "5" "9" "13" "17" "21" "25"
#Q2 "2" "6" "10" "14" "18" "22" "26"
#Q3 "3" "7" "11" "15" "19" "23" "27"
#Q4 "4" "8" "12" "16" "20" "24" ""