dplyr (version 0.5.0)

coalesce: Find first non-missing element

Description

Given a set of vectors, coelesce finds the first non-missing value at each position. This is inspired by the SQL COALESCE function which does the same thing for NULLs.

Usage

coalesce(x, ...)

Arguments

x, ...

Vectors. All inputs should either be length 1, or the same length as x

Value

A vector the same length as x with missing values replaced by the first non-missing value.

See Also

na_if() to replace specified values with a NA.

Examples

# Use a single value to replace all missing values
x <- sample(c(1:5, NA, NA, NA))
coalesce(x, 0L)

# Or match together a complete vector from missing pieces
y <- c(1, 2, NA, NA, 5)
z <- c(NA, NA, 3, 4, 5)
coalesce(y, z)