sort_panel: sort_panel

In BMisc: Miscellaneous Functions for Panel Data, Quantiles, and Printing Results

sort_panel

Description

Sorts a panel data set by unit id and then time period. 'data' is copied before sorting, so the object passed in is left unmodified. For large panels where copying is undesirable, sort in place instead with 'data.table::setorderv(data, c(idname, tname))'.

Usage

sort_panel(data, idname, tname)

Arguments

data	data.frame (or data.table) used in function
idname	unique id
tname	time period name

Value

'data' sorted by '(idname, tname)', with the same class ('data.frame' or 'data.table') as 'data'

Examples

id <- rep(sample(1:5), each = 2) # units in a shuffled, unsorted order
t <- rep(c(2, 1), 5) # each unit's own periods out of time order
dta <- data.frame(id = id, t = t, y = rnorm(10))
dta <- sort_panel(dta, idname = "id", tname = "t")

BMisc documentation built on Aug. 22, 2026, 5:07 p.m.