R: Lag a Numeric, Character, or Factor Vector

Lag {Hmisc} | R Documentation

## Lag a Numeric, Character, or Factor Vector

### Description

Shifts a vector `shift` elements later. Character or factor variables are padded with `""`, numerics with `NA`. The shift may be negative.

### Usage

    Lag(x, shift = 1)

### Arguments

`x` | a vector
`shift` | integer specifying the number of observations to be shifted to the right. Negative values imply shifts to the left.

### Details

A.ttributes of the original object are carried along to the new lagged one.

### Value

a vector like `x`

### Author(s)

Frank Harrell

### See Also

`lag`

### Examples

    Lag(1:5,2)
    Lag(letters[1:4],2)
    Lag(factor(letters[1:4]),-2)
    # Find which observations are the first for a given subject
    id <- c('a','a','b','b','b','c')
    id != Lag(id)
    !duplicated(id)

[Package Hmisc version 4.7-0 Index]