Improve efficiency for removing duplicate values per row and shift values in R

Question

I have a huge dataset ( > 2.5 Million). A small subset looks like this (code reproducible)

temp <- data.frame(list(col1 = c("424", "560", "557"), 
                        col2 = c("276", "427", "V46"), 
                        col3 = c("780", "V45", "584"), 
                        col4 = c("276", "V45", "995"), 
                        col5 = c("428", "799", "427")))

> temp
  col1 col2 col3 col4 col5
1  424  276  780  276  428
2  560  427  V45  V45  799
3  557  V46  584  995  427

I am trying to remove duplicates per row, and shifting values left, using this code

library(plyr)
temp <- apply(temp,1,function(x) unique(unlist(x)))
temp <- ldply(temp, rbind)

> temp
      1   2   3   4    5
  1 424 276 780 428 <NA>
  2 560 427 V45 799 <NA>
  3 557 V46 584 995  427

I am successfull in doing this, however when I extend the above code to my original huge dataset, I am facing performance issues. because I am using apply, the code takes lot of time to execute

Can I improve this?

Answer 1

A simpler function in apply which should speed things up. We use the fact that indexing with a number larger than length(x) results in NA.

nc <- ncol(temp)
t(apply(temp, 1, function(x) unique(x)[1:nc]))

#      [,1]  [,2]  [,3]  [,4]  [,5] 
# [1,] "424" "276" "780" "428" NA   
# [2,] "560" "427" "V45" "799" NA   
# [3,] "557" "V46" "584" "995" "427"

---

A data.table alternative in a similar vein, but the update is done on the data in a long format instead. The benchmark below suggests that this may be slightly faster.

setDT(temp)
nc <- ncol(temp)
dcast(melt(temp[, ri := seq_len(.N)], id.var = "ri")[
  , value := unique(value)[1:nc], by = ri], ri ~ variable)[ , ri := NULL][]
#    col1 col2 col3 col4 col5
# 1:  424  276  780  428   NA
# 2:  560  427  V45  799   NA
# 3:  557  V46  584  995  427

---

Benchmark on data of the size mentioned in OP. In the benchmark by F. Privé on a 1e5 data set, OP alternative was slower, and it is not included here.

temp <- temp[sample(nrow(temp), size = 3e6, replace = TRUE), ]

microbenchmark::microbenchmark(
  privefl = {
    p <- ncol(temp)
    myf <- compiler::cmpfun(
      function(x) {
        un <- unique(x)
        d <- p - length(un)
        if (d > 0) {
          un <- c(un, rep(NA_character_, d))
        }
        un
      }
    )
    as.data.frame(t(apply(t(temp), 2, myf)))},

  h1 = {nc <- ncol(temp)
  as.data.frame(t(apply(temp, 1, function(x) unique(x)[1:nc])))},

  h2 = {d <- as.data.table(temp)
    nc <- ncol(d)
    dcast(melt(d[, ri := seq_len(.N)], id.var = "ri")[
      , value := unique(value)[1:nc], by = ri], ri ~ variable)[ , ri := NULL]},
  times = 20, unit = "relative")

# Unit: relative
#    expr      min       lq     mean   median       uq      max neval cld
# privefl 1.312071 1.342116 1.341450 1.354268 1.403343 1.243641    20   b
#      h1 1.227693 1.270512 1.270115 1.332642 1.301049 1.156123    20   b
#      h2 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000    20  a