How to combine two vectors while replacing the NA values with the values in the other vector in R?

R Programming Server Side Programming Programming

Sometimes we have vectors with NA values, also there might be a situation that one of vector having an NA at a position and the other vector has the numerical values at the same position. For example, 1, 2, NA and 1, 2, 3. In this case, we might want to combine these two vectors to make a single vector. This can be done by using coalesce function of dplyr package.

Example

> library(dplyr)
> x1<-sample(c(1:4,NA),20,replace=TRUE)
> x1

Output

[1] NA 4 NA 1 2 NA 4 1 4 1 2 3 1 4 2 2 NA 2 2 1

Example

Live Demo

> y1<-1:20
> y1

Output

[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

> coalesce(x1,y1)

Output

[1] 1 4 3 1 2 6 4 1 4 1 2 3 1 4 2 2 17 2 2 1

Example

Live Demo

> x2<-sample(c(5,NA,10),50,replace=TRUE)
> x2

Output

[1] 10 5 NA 5 5 NA 5 NA NA 5 NA 10 NA 10 5 NA NA NA 10 5 5 NA NA 5 NA
[26] 5 10 5 10 10 10 10 NA NA 5 NA 5 NA 5 NA 10 10 NA 10 NA 5 NA 10 10 5

Example

Live Demo

> y2<-sample(c(5,8,10),50,replace=TRUE)
> y2

Output

[1] 5 5 10 5 10 8 8 8 5 10 8 5 10 8 10 5 5 8 5 5 10 8 8 8 10
[26] 5 10 5 5 10 10 5 5 10 10 8 10 10 8 8 10 5 5 5 8 5 10 5 8 8

> coalesce(x2,y2)

Output

[1] 10 5 10 5 5 8 5 8 5 5 8 10 10 10 5 5 5 8 10 5 5 8 8 5 10
[26] 5 10 5 10 10 10 10 5 10 5 8 5 10 5 8 10 10 5 10 8 5 10 10 10 5

Example

Live Demo

> x3<-sample(c(2,4,16,NA,10),100,replace=TRUE)
> x3

Output

[1] 2 2 16 16 NA NA 2 16 16 4 4 4 NA 10 2 4 NA 2 4 NA 16 2 10 10 16
[26] NA 2 16 2 10 NA 4 2 10 10 16 10 16 10 NA 4 4 4 4 10 NA NA 10 16 10
[51] 4 4 NA 16 16 2 NA 10 16 16 16 16 2 4 16 2 2 16 NA 2 NA 4 16 4 16
[76] 2 4 NA NA 2 2 10 16 10 4 10 4 10 NA 10 NA 4 10 4 16 2 4 2 16 2

Example

Live Demo

> y3<-sample(c(2,4,16,8,10),100,replace=TRUE)
> y3

Output

[1] 10 2 8 8 10 8 10 8 4 2 10 4 16 10 8 2 8 8 2 2 4 4 2 10 10
[26] 8 16 8 16 4 4 2 16 2 16 8 4 16 4 8 8 10 10 4 4 4 4 2 4 10
[51] 2 8 2 4 2 10 8 8 4 4 2 10 2 16 8 8 10 8 2 2 10 16 10 10 2
[76] 4 10 2 4 10 4 8 16 4 2 4 2 16 4 8 10 4 8 10 16 4 4 4 10 2

> coalesce(x3,y3)

Output

[1] 2 2 16 16 10 8 2 16 16 4 4 4 16 10 2 4 8 2 4 2 16 2 10 10 16
[26] 8 2 16 2 10 4 4 2 10 10 16 10 16 10 8 4 4 4 4 10 4 4 10 16 10
[51] 4 4 2 16 16 2 8 10 16 16 16 16 2 4 16 2 2 16 2 2 10 4 16 4 16
[76] 2 4 2 4 2 2 10 16 10 4 10 4 10 4 10 10 4 10 4 16 2 4 2 16 2

Example

Live Demo

> x4<-sample(rnorm(10),50,replace=TRUE)
> x4

Output

[1] -0.02879712 1.31733536 -0.02879712 -0.77268752 0.47775338 1.23117578
[7] 1.23117578 -0.77268752 1.31733536 0.30903710 0.47775338 1.31733536
[13] -0.77268752 0.30903710 1.31733536 -1.65681391 -1.65681391 1.31733536
[19] -0.02879712 0.47775338 0.30903710 -0.77268752 0.08699075 -0.02879712
[25] -1.65681391 -0.77268752 0.45328379 1.23117578 0.08699075 -1.65681391
[31] 1.23117578 0.47775338 1.25889501 0.45328379 1.31733536 -1.65681391
[37] 0.45328379 0.30903710 0.45328379 1.31733536 0.30903710 0.45328379
[43] 0.08699075 1.31733536 -1.65681391 1.31733536 -0.77268752 -1.65681391
[49] -0.77268752 1.25889501

Example

Live Demo

> y4<-sample(c(rnorm(10),NA),50,replace=TRUE)
> y4

Output

[1] -0.6383008 -0.6383008 1.0152569 1.0152569 0.5242708 -0.6383008
[7] -0.3965653 NA 0.5242708 -0.4664776 NA NA
[13] 1.1300389 -0.3965653 -0.3965653 1.0152569 -0.9956721 -0.4664776
[19] -0.4664776 -0.3610621 NA 0.4749585 -0.4664776 -0.3965653
[25] -0.3610621 -0.9956721 -0.6383008 NA 1.0152569 -0.4664776
[31] 0.4749585 NA -0.4664776 -0.9956721 NA -0.3610621
[37] -0.3965653 1.0152569 0.4749585 0.5242708 0.5242708 -0.3965653
[43] -0.4664776 -0.8300846 -0.9956721 NA 1.0152569 -0.9956721
[49] -0.4664776 -0.6383008

> coalesce(x4,y4)

Output

[1] -0.02879712 1.31733536 -0.02879712 -0.77268752 0.47775338 1.23117578
[7] 1.23117578 -0.77268752 1.31733536 0.30903710 0.47775338 1.31733536
[13] -0.77268752 0.30903710 1.31733536 -1.65681391 -1.65681391 1.31733536
[19] -0.02879712 0.47775338 0.30903710 -0.77268752 0.08699075 -0.02879712
[25] -1.65681391 -0.77268752 0.45328379 1.23117578 0.08699075 -1.65681391
[31] 1.23117578 0.47775338 1.25889501 0.45328379 1.31733536 -1.65681391
[37] 0.45328379 0.30903710 0.45328379 1.31733536 0.30903710 0.45328379
[43] 0.08699075 1.31733536 -1.65681391 1.31733536 -0.77268752 -1.65681391
[49] -0.77268752 1.25889501

Example

Live Demo

> x5<-sample(c(runif(10,2,5)),50,replace=TRUE)
> x5

Output

[1] 4.791954 4.447842 4.479391 4.627612 4.447842 2.460460 2.460460 4.627612
[9] 4.130456 2.904874 2.904874 2.460460 4.804377 2.517587 4.447842 4.627612
[17] 4.804377 4.791954 4.479391 2.460460 4.479391 4.479391 4.130456 3.218738
[25] 4.447842 4.130456 2.460460 4.791954 4.479391 3.218738 4.479391 4.479391
[33] 4.791954 2.517587 4.447842 4.479391 3.218738 4.130456 3.218738 4.791954
[41] 2.904874 4.479391 4.791954 2.904874 4.479391 4.791954 4.479391 4.130456
[49] 4.804377 4.791954

Example

Live Demo

> y5<-sample(c(runif(10,3,5)),50,replace=TRUE)
> y5

Output

[1] 4.805609 4.832933 3.553856 4.832933 4.942905 4.805609 4.942905 4.608437
[9] 4.832933 4.163457 4.832933 4.608437 3.013883 4.608437 4.942905 4.163457
[17] 4.743048 3.013883 3.013883 4.743048 3.553856 4.743048 3.933597 3.933597
[25] 4.743048 4.508212 4.805609 4.743048 3.013883 4.163457 4.942905 4.743048
[33] 4.942905 4.508212 3.553856 4.608437 3.553856 4.743048 3.933597 4.163457
[41] 3.933597 4.508212 4.608437 4.508212 3.933597 4.942905 4.508212 4.832933
[49] 4.832933 4.805609

> coalesce(x5,y5)

Output

[1] 4.791954 4.447842 4.479391 4.627612 4.447842 2.460460 2.460460 4.627612
[9] 4.130456 2.904874 2.904874 2.460460 4.804377 2.517587 4.447842 4.627612
[17] 4.804377 4.791954 4.479391 2.460460 4.479391 4.479391 4.130456 3.218738
[25] 4.447842 4.130456 2.460460 4.791954 4.479391 3.218738 4.479391 4.479391
[33] 4.791954 2.517587 4.447842 4.479391 3.218738 4.130456 3.218738 4.791954
[41] 2.904874 4.479391 4.791954 2.904874 4.479391 4.791954 4.479391 4.130456
[49] 4.804377 4.791954

Nizamuddin Siddiqui

Updated on: 07-Sep-2020

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