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Creating data using multiple for loops

4 messages · g@e@sth@m@giibert m@iii@g oii gm@ii@com, Bert Gunter, Jim Lemon +1 more

Original
g@e@sth@m@giibert m@iii@g oii gm@ii@com
# 
I would like to create pseudo identification numbers in the format of last
four of a social security number (0000 to 9999), month of birth (01 to 12),
and day of birth (01-28). The IDs can be character.

I have gotten this far:

for (ssn in 0:9){
     for (month in 1:3){
          for (day in 1:5){
                      }
                      id <-paste(ssn, month, day, sep="")
            }
}

limiting each value above for demonstration purposes. I cannot figure out
how to store the created IDs. I know I have to create a container, but I
don't know, among other things, how to index the container.  Any help is
appreciated. TIA

-Greg
Bert Gunter
# 
id <- do.call(paste0,expand.grid(0:9, 1:3, 1:5))

Comment: If you use R much, you'll do much better using R language
constructs than trying to apply those from other languages (Java perhaps?).
I realize this can be difficult, especially if you are experienced in the
another language (or languages), but it's worth the effort.


Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and
sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )
On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 11:58 AM <g.eastham.gilbert at gmail.com> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Jim Lemon
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Hi Greg,
One problem is that you have misplaced the closing brace in the third
loop. It should follow the assignment statement. Because you used
loops rather than Bert's suggestion, perhaps you are trying to order
the values assigned. In your example, the ordering will be ssn, then
month of birth, then day of birth. Occasionally people resort to an
explicit calculation for the index:

id<-vector("character",10*3*5)
for (ssn in 0:9){
     for (month in 1:3){
          for (day in 1:5){
                      id[day+(month-1)*5+ssn*15] <-paste0(ssn, month, day)
          }
     }
}

This would order the values in the opposite precedence. Also, you may
not want to create well over 3 million values as in your initial
specification, in which case a different strategy using "sample" would
be appropriate.

Jim

        
On Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 4:58 AM <g.eastham.gilbert at gmail.com> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      William Dunlap
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
do.call(paste0,expand.grid(0:1000, 1:12, 1:30)) takes care of storing all
the values, but note that paste() doesn't put leading zeroes in front of
small numbers so this maps lots of  ssn/month/day combos to the the same
id.  sprintf() can take care of that:
id <- with(expand.grid(ssn=0:1000, month=1:12, day=1:30),
sprintf("%04d%02d%02d", ssn, month, day))

You probably should define a function to map vectors of ssn, month,  and
day to a vector of ids (it can also check for inappropriate inputs), check
that it works, and use it instead of repeating the sprintf() or paste0()
code.

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

        
On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 12:18 PM Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com> wrote: