Fill missing values on a table

Question

I have a list of dates and prices:

Date           Price
1/3/2000        10.00
1/5/2000        10.45
1/7/2000        10.25
...               ...

I have a separate list of dates with all dates:

Date
1/1/2000
1/2/2000
1/3/2000
...

I need to have them combined so that the prior price is filled in for the dates that are missing prices:

Date            Price
1/1/2000         10.00
1/2/2000         10.00
1/3/2000         10.00
1/4/2000         10.00
1/5/2000         10.45
1/6/2000         10.45
1/7/2000         10.25
...               ...

I am currently trying to loop through array lists holding the data but can't line the dates up correctly, especially at the beginning and end. I am using Java/Mysql/JDBC right now but am open to R also. Thanks for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Thanks to everyone for your help. Here's what I ended up doing: -I created a list of all indexes where the dates matched.
-I then inserted the prices into an array with the same number of elements as the full time list. -I then created 3 loops, one for the elements before the first matching time, one for the elements after the last matching element and finally one for everything in between.
-These three filled in the prices that were missing.

Just though I'd share. Thanks for all your help.

public static void checkLengths(ArrayList<String> masterTimes, ArrayList<String> testTimes, ArrayList<Double> prices){
    ArrayList<Double> temp = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Integer> matches = new ArrayList<Integer>();
    Double[] temp2 = new Double [masterTimes.size()];
    int mt = masterTimes.size();
    int tt = testTimes.size();
        if(mt == tt){
            return;
        }else{
            int mast = 0;
            int test = 0;
            String mt1 = masterTimes.get(0);
            String tt1 = testTimes.get(0);

            test = 0;
            for(int i = 0; i < masterTimes.size(); i++){
                mt1 = masterTimes.get(i);
                tt1 = testTimes.get(test);
                System.out.println(" | mt1: " + mt1 + " | tt1: " + tt1);
                    if(mt1.equals(tt1)){
                        matches.add(i);
                        System.out.println("Inserting: " + i);
                        if(test < testTimes.size()){
                        test++;
                        }
                        if(test == testTimes.size()){
                            break;
                        }
                    }
            }
            System.out.println("Matches:");
            printAL(matches);

            // puts in known prices.
            for(int i = 0; i < matches.size(); i++){
                int g = matches.get(i);
                temp2[g] =  prices.get(i);
            }

            System.out.println("FirstPrices:");
            printAR(temp2);

            // Finds index of first and last matching times.
            int matcher1 = matches.get(0);
            int ind = matches.size() - 1;
            int matcher2 = matches.get(ind);
            System.out.println("Matcher1:" + matcher1 + " | Matcher2: " + matcher2);

            // If a price is empty/null, it puts the prior price in it.
            for(int i = matcher1; i < matcher2; i ++){
                System.out.println(i + " | " + temp2[i]);
                if(temp2[i] == null){
                    System.out.println(temp2[i] + " | " + temp2[i-1]);
                    temp2[i] = temp2[i-1];
                }
            }
            System.out.println("SecondPrices:");
            printAR(temp2);

            // Deals with start.
            for(int i = matcher1; i >= 0; i--){
                if(temp2[i] == null){
                    temp2[i] = temp2[i+1];
                }
            }

            System.out.println("ThirdPrices:");
            printAR(temp2);

            // Deals with end.
            for(int i = matcher2; i < temp2.length; i++){
                if(temp2[i] == null){
                    temp2[i] = temp2[i-1];
                }
            }
            System.out.println("FourthPrices:");
            printAR(temp2);             

            prices.clear();
            System.out.println("Final Check:");

            for (int i = 0; i < masterTimes.size(); i++){
                System.out.println(i + " | " + masterTimes.get(i) + " | " + temp2[i]);
            }

        }
}