filter_ma: Apply a moving average filter

In mnirs: Muscle Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Processing and Analysis

Apply a moving average filter

Description

Apply a simple moving average smoothing filter to vector data. filter_moving_average() is an alias of filter_ma().

Usage

filter_ma(
  x,
  t = seq_along(x),
  width = NULL,
  span = NULL,
  partial = FALSE,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  verbose = TRUE,
  ...
)

filter_moving_average(
  x,
  t = seq_along(x),
  width = NULL,
  span = NULL,
  partial = FALSE,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  verbose = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

x	A numeric vector of the response variable.
t	An optional numeric vector of the predictor variable (e.g. time). Default is seq_along(x).
width	An integer defining the local window in number of samples centred on idx, between ⁠[idx - floor(width/2), idx + floor(width/2)]⁠.
span	A numeric value defining the local window time span around idx in units of time_channel or t, between ⁠[t - span/2, t + span/2]⁠.
partial	Logical; default is FALSE, requires local windows to have complete number of samples specified by width or span. If TRUE, processes available samples within the local window. See Details.
na.rm	Logical; default is FALSE, propagates any NAs to the returned vector. If TRUE, ignores NAs and processes available valid samples within the local window. May return errors or warnings. (see Details).
verbose	Logical. Default is TRUE. Display or silence (if FALSE) warnings and information messages helpful for troubleshooting. Ad global default can be set via options(mnirs.verbose = FALSE).
...	Additional arguments.

Details

Rolling window

Applies a centred (symmetrical) moving average filter in a local window, defined by either width as the number of samples around idx between ⁠[idx - floor(width/2), idx + floor(width/2)]⁠. Or by span as the timespan in units of time_channel between ⁠[t - span/2, t + span/2]⁠.

Partial windows

The default partial = FALSE requires a complete number of samples specified by width or span (estimated from the sample rate of t when span is used). NA is returned if fewer samples are present in the local window.

Setting partial = TRUE allows computation with only a single valid sample, such as at edge conditions. But these values will be more sensitive to noise and should be used with caution.

Missing values

na.rm controls whether missing values (NAs) within each local window are either propagated to the returned vector when na.rm = FALSE (the default), or ignored before processing if na.rm = TRUE.

Value

A numeric vector the same length as x.

Examples

x <- c(1, 3, 2, 5, 4, 6, 5, 7)
t <- c(0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10)  ## irregular time with gaps

## width: centred window of 3 samples
filter_ma(x, width = 3)

## partial = TRUE fills edge values with a narrower window
filter_ma(x, width = 3, partial = TRUE)

## span: centred window of 2 time-units (accounts for irregular sampling)
filter_ma(x, t, span = 2)

## na.rm = FALSE (default): any NA in the window propagates to the result
x_na <- c(1, NA, 3, 4, 5, NA, 7, 8)
filter_ma(x_na, width = 3, na.rm = FALSE)

## na.rm = TRUE: skip NAs and return the local mean of local valid values
filter_ma(x_na, width = 3, partial = TRUE, na.rm = TRUE)

mnirs documentation built on May 15, 2026, 9:07 a.m.