R/calculateMainInterval.R

In Sumpfohreule/MyUtilities: Collection of general functions which are useful in multiple contexts

#' Find the most prevalent interval in a vector
#'
#' The interval between all neighboring vector values is calculated and the
#' most frequent one returned.
#' Can be used to find the actual logging interval between dates if there are
#' gaps in the vector
#'
#' @param vector A vector of values which must be convertible to numeric
#' (dates, date-times, etc.)
#' @export
#'
calculateMainInterval <- function(vector) {
  assertthat::assert_that(length(vector) > 1)
  vector <- as.numericTryCatch(vector)
  diff.counts <- table(diff(as.numeric(vector)))
  diff.value <- attr(diff.counts[diff.counts == max(diff.counts)], "names")
  if (length(diff.value) > 1) {
    stop("There are multiple intervals with the same frequency")
  }
  return(as.numeric(diff.value))
}