last.panel.gap: last.panel.gap

In tvtools: Comprehensive Tools for Panel Data Analysis - 'tvtools'

last.panel.gap

Description

Identifies the time point of the last observed gap in observation for each unique subject in a panel data structure. A gap represents a missing period between recorded observations, important for assessing data completeness and continuity.

Usage

last.panel.gap(
  dat,
  id.name,
  t1.name,
  t2.name,
  gap.name = "gap_before",
  first.value = 0,
  expected.gap.between = 0,
  append.to.table = FALSE
)

Arguments

dat	A data frame structured as panel data.
id.name	The character name of the identifying variable within dat, used to track subjects across multiple rows of data.
t1.name	The character name of the time variable within dat representing the start (left endpoint) of observation intervals.
t2.name	The character name of the time variable within dat representing the end (right endpoint) of observation intervals.
gap.name	A character value for the name of the variable indicating whether a gap is observed before the record.
first.value	The numeric value indicating the expected beginning time of the observation period for each subject.
expected.gap.between	The numeric value specifying the expected time between the end of one record and the start of the next; defaults to zero for continuous observation.
append.to.table	A logical indicating whether to append the identified last gap times as a new column to the existing data.frame (TRUE) or return them as a separate data frame (FALSE, default).

Value

If append.to.table is FALSE, returns a data table with the time points of the last gap for each subject, keyed by the id.name. Each row will correspond to a unique subject, including the time point of their last observed gap, if any. If append.to.table is TRUE, the original data table is returned with an additional column containing these time points for each subject. This functionality aids in analyzing and understanding the patterns of missing observations or breaks in data collection within the study period.

tvtools documentation built on Oct. 8, 2024, 5:09 p.m.