Group consecutive dates in R

Question

I'm looking for an R-package to group consecutive dates into periods. In addition, columns must be grouped by FID, PID and SETTING:

# Input data
input <- read.csv(text=
    "FID,PID,SETTING,DATE
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-01
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-02
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-03
    00001, 100002, AB, 2021-01-04
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-11
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-12
    00002, 200001, AB, 2021-01-02
    00002, 200001, AB, 2021-01-03
    00002, 200001, AB, 2021-01-04
    00002, 200002, TK, 2021-01-05"
)

# Expected output
output <- read.csv(text="
    FID,PID,SETTING,START,END
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-01, 2021-01-03
    00001, 100002, AB, 2021-01-04, 2021-01-04
    00001, 100001, ST, 2021-01-11, 2021-01-12
    00002, 200001, AB, 2021-01-02, 2021-01-04
    00002, 200002, TK, 2021-01-05, 2021-01-05"
)

I 've to group around 700'000 lines. Therefore, the solution should be as performant as possible.

This might help get you started: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51385638/how-do-i-group-consecutive-dates-within-a-vector-in-r — Skaqqs, Oct 22 '21 at 11:38
FYI, your request *"looking for an R-package"* is by its nature [off-topic](https://stackoverflow.com/help/on-topic) because it is *"asking us to recommend or find a book, tool, software library"*. However, without that this is effectively asking us to summarize data by group, which is both a valid question and a frequent question. With that in mind, it is a duplicate ([summarize-by-group](https://stackoverflow.com/q/11562656/3358272)) and should likely be closed as such. I answered anyway; despite being a dupe, you can still accept it if it meets your needs. — r2evans, Oct 22 '21 at 12:04
The collapse package has seqid for this: `as.numeric(seqid(as.Date(input$DATE))))` Now group by that and the other grouping variables. — G. Grothendieck, Oct 22 '21 at 12:48

r2evans · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-22T11:59:49.407

base R

input <- input[order(input$DATE),]
input$grp <- ave(as.integer(input$DATE), input[-4], FUN = function(z) cumsum(c(TRUE, diff(z) > 1)))
input
#    FID    PID SETTING       DATE grp
# 1    1 100001      ST 2021-01-01   1
# 2    1 100001      ST 2021-01-02   1
# 7    2 200001      AB 2021-01-02   1
# 3    1 100001      ST 2021-01-03   1
# 8    2 200001      AB 2021-01-03   1
# 4    1 100002      AB 2021-01-04   1
# 9    2 200001      AB 2021-01-04   1
# 10   2 200002      TK 2021-01-05   1
# 5    1 100001      ST 2021-01-11   1
# 6    1 100001      ST 2021-01-12   1

out <- aggregate(DATE ~ FID + PID + SETTING + grp, data = input,
                 FUN = function(z) setNames(range(z), c("START","END")))
out <- do.call(data.frame, out)
out[,5:6] <- lapply(out[,5:6], as.Date, origin = "1970-01-01")
out
#   FID    PID SETTING grp DATE.START   DATE.END
# 1   1 100002      AB   1 2021-01-04 2021-01-04
# 2   2 200001      AB   1 2021-01-02 2021-01-04
# 3   1 100001      ST   1 2021-01-01 2021-01-03
# 4   2 200002      TK   1 2021-01-05 2021-01-05
# 5   1 100001      ST   2 2021-01-11 2021-01-12

Walk-through:

the ease of cumsum and diff is accomplished assuming that the dates are always ordered; it is not important (here) that the other grouping variables may be misordered;
ave(..) assigns groups of non-consecutive (diff over 1) dates, which we use in the next step;
aggregate calculates the range within each group, using your three variables plus our new grp grouping variable; each z in the anonymous function is a contiguous vector of dates, so range gives us that start/end dates;
unfortunately, aggregate is assigning a matrix as the fifth column instead of two separate columns, so do.call(data.frame, out) fixes that;
unfortunately, most base R aggregating functions tend to strip the Date (and POSIXt) class from the vectors, so we need to use as.Date to heal that.

dplyr

library(dplyr)
input %>%
  arrange(DATE) %>%
  group_by(FID, PID, SETTING) %>%
  mutate(grp = cumsum(c(TRUE, diff(DATE) > 1))) %>%
  group_by(FID, PID, SETTING, grp) %>%
  summarize(START = min(DATE), END = max(DATE)) %>%
  ungroup()
# # A tibble: 5 x 6
#     FID    PID SETTING   grp START      END       
#   <int>  <int> <chr>   <int> <date>     <date>    
# 1     1 100001 " ST"       1 2021-01-01 2021-01-03
# 2     1 100001 " ST"       2 2021-01-11 2021-01-12
# 3     1 100002 " AB"       1 2021-01-04 2021-01-04
# 4     2 200001 " AB"       1 2021-01-02 2021-01-04
# 5     2 200002 " TK"       1 2021-01-05 2021-01-05

data.table

library(data.table)
inputDT <- as.data.table(input)
setorder(inputDT, DATE)
inputDT[, grp := cumsum(c(TRUE, diff(DATE) > 1)), by = .(FID, PID, SETTING)
  ][, .(START = min(DATE), END = max(DATE)), by = .(FID, PID, SETTING, grp)
  ][]
#      FID    PID SETTING   grp      START        END
#    <int>  <int>  <char> <int>     <Date>     <Date>
# 1:     1 100001      ST     1 2021-01-01 2021-01-03
# 2:     2 200001      AB     1 2021-01-02 2021-01-04
# 3:     1 100002      AB     1 2021-01-04 2021-01-04
# 4:     2 200002      TK     1 2021-01-05 2021-01-05
# 5:     1 100001      ST     2 2021-01-11 2021-01-12

Group consecutive dates in R

1 Answers1

base R

dplyr

data.table

Linked