Find the max date in a single column across multiple rows

Question

I have the following data frame:

id       <- c(1,1,2,3,3)
date     <- c("23-01-08","01-11-07","30-11-07","17-12-07","12-12-08")
df       <- data.frame(id,date)
df$date2 <- as.Date(as.character(df$date), format = "%d-%m-%y")


id     date      date2
1   23-01-08 2008-01-23
1   01-11-07 2007-11-01
2   30-11-07 2007-11-30
3   17-12-07 2007-12-17
3   12-12-08 2008-12-12

now I need to create a forth column and insert maximum date of transaction for each id in that. the final table should be as follow:

id     date      date2        max
1   23-01-08 2008-01-23 2008-01-23
1   01-11-07 2007-11-01   0
2   30-11-07 2007-11-30 2007-11-30 
3   17-12-07 2007-12-17   0
3   12-12-08 2008-12-12 2008-12-12

I would be thankful if you could help me with this.

Answer 1

Adding dplyr solution in case someone is looking:

library(dplyr)

df %>%
  group_by(id) %>%
  mutate(max = if_else(date2 == max(date2), date2, as.Date(NA))) 

Result:

# A tibble: 5 x 4
# Groups:   id [3]
     id     date      date2        max
  <dbl>   <fctr>     <date>     <date>
1     1 23-01-08 2008-01-23 2008-01-23
2     1 01-11-07 2007-11-01         NA
3     2 30-11-07 2007-11-30 2007-11-30
4     3 17-12-07 2007-12-17         NA
5     3 12-12-08 2008-12-12 2008-12-12

Answer 2

Another approach is to use the plyr package:

library(plyr)
ddply(df, "id", summarize, max = max(date2))

#  id        max
#1  1 2008-01-23
#2  2 2007-11-30
#3  3 2008-12-12

Now this isn't in the format you were after, as it only shows each id once. Never fear, we can use transform instead of summarize:

ddply(df, "id", transform, max = max(date2))

#  id     date      date2        max
#1  1 01-11-07 2007-11-01 2008-01-23
#2  1 23-01-08 2008-01-23 2008-01-23
#3  2 30-11-07 2007-11-30 2007-11-30
#4  3 12-12-08 2008-12-12 2008-12-12
#5  3 17-12-07 2007-12-17 2008-12-12

As in @seandavi's answer, this repeats the max date for each id. If you want to change the duplicates to NA, something like this will do the job:

within(ddply(df, "id", transform, max = max(date2)), max[max != date2] <- NA)

Answer 3

id<-c(1,1,2,3,3)
date<-c("23-01-08","01-11-07","30-11-07","17-12-07","12-12-08")
df<-data.frame(id,date)
df$date2<-as.Date(as.character(df$date), format = "%d-%m-%y")
# aggregate can be used for this type of thing
d = aggregate(df$date2,by=list(df$id),max)
# And merge the result of aggregate 
# with the original data frame
df2 = merge(df,d,by.x=1,by.y=1)
df2

  id     date      date2          x
1  1 23-01-08 2008-01-23 2008-01-23
2  1 01-11-07 2007-11-01 2008-01-23
3  2 30-11-07 2007-11-30 2007-11-30
4  3 17-12-07 2007-12-17 2008-12-12
5  3 12-12-08 2008-12-12 2008-12-12

Edit: Since you want the last column to be "empty" when the date does not match the max date, you can try the next line.

df2[df2[,3]!=df2[,4],4]=NA

df2
  id     date      date2          x
1  1 23-01-08 2008-01-23 2008-01-23
2  1 01-11-07 2007-11-01       <NA>
3  2 30-11-07 2007-11-30 2007-11-30
4  3 17-12-07 2007-12-17       <NA>
5  3 12-12-08 2008-12-12 2008-12-12

Of course, it is always nice to clean up the colnames, etc., but I leave that for you.