rank analysis - reinventing the wheel?

Hello,

I have two data frames. One is my dependent variable and the other is my
independent variable. For each row I'd like to split the independent
variable into fractiles (25 or more) and calculate the average value of
the
dependent variable. Then I would like to plot the average of the averages
for each row for each fractile.  If possible, I'd like to have the option
to
1) define the fractiles independently for each row, and 2) define the
fractiles based off the independent variable data frame as a whole at the
start and keep it fixed.

Anyway, is there a pacakge/function in R that does something like this so
I
don't have to reinvent the wheel? If not, any help on how to do this
efficiently in R would be great.

Here is a super simple example using 3 fractiles:

independent data frame:
  item1 item2 item3
1    18    15    16
2    12    12    17
3    20    13    18

dependent data frame:
  item1 item2 item3
1     3     1     6
2     2     2     7
3     1     3     8

fractiles by row by item: (done with independent data frame, redefining
fractiles each row)
fractiles:  1                    2       3
row 1    item2             item3   item1  (because 15 < 16 < 18)
row 2    item1,item2    [none]  item3  (because 12 < 17 ... or however
ties
are handled is fine)
row 3    item2             item3   item1  (because 13 < 18 < 20)

Note: in the above fractiles there would almost always be more than one
item
in each fractile if this example wasn't so simple...

dependent variable averages by row by fractile:
fractiles:  1                    2       3
row 1       1                   6        3
row 2       2               [none]     7
row 3       3                   8         1

Note: obviously this example is so simple there aren't actual averages
because there aren't enough items for each fractile, but I hope you get
the
point.

So then the averages of the fractiles would be:
fractiles:                               1                    2       3
dependent data avg:               2                   7        3.67

Then I would like to plot a histogram of the fractile averages directly
above.

Thanks!

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