Calculate total experimental time for each sample

Question

I am trying to calculate cumulative time between experiment initiation and each temperature measurement I made during an experiment. My experiment has 50+ samples (i.e. A1,A2,B1,B2 ect) and each sample was initiated at a different time/day.

I want to treat time as a continuous variable so I need to calculate the total (cumulative time in hours) for each temp measurement, as indicated by a total time variable (below).

Is there a way to do this without telling R the start and end time for each sample? How can I get cumulative time for each temperature measurement?

An example of how the data looks is shown below:

Date    Time    Sample  Temp    **Total Time**
2017-06-28  13:58   A1  13.67870139 0
2017-06-29  16:08   A1  13.34256319 (time between 06-28 13:58 and 06-29 16:08)
2017-06-30  07:32   A1  12.84005139 (time between 06-28 13:58 and 06-30 07:32)
2017-06-30  19:14   A1  12.84005139 ect
2017-07-01  07:40   A1  11.83983472 
2017-07-01  19:20   A1  11.83983472 
2017-07-02  07:53   A1  11.75332292 
2017-07-02  19:06   A1  11.75332292 
2017-07-03  07:45   A1  11.74469167 
2017-07-03  19:04   A1  11.74469167 
2017-07-04  08:15   A1  11.45409583 

Thanks!

PS- I haven't tried anything because I can only find example where there is a "start time" and "end time" col. I guess I could create a start time col for each sample and ask r to calculate the time diff between start time and the time of each measurement.... I don't know how to make R make a start time col for the earliest measurement for each sample. I could spend a whole day doing it in excel but there must bet a better solution!

Answer 1

Here's one way. First, unite the Date and Time column. Then, convert it to a timestamp via lubridate::ymd_hm. Next, pluck the first timestamp. Finally, create two new columns that show the difference from that start date.

library(tidyverse)
library(lubridate)

df <- df %>%
  unite("datetime", c("Date", "Time"), sep = " ") %>%
  mutate(datetime = ymd_hm(datetime))

start_date <- df$datetime[1]

df %>%
  mutate(time_from_start_secs = datetime - start_date,
         time_from_start_period = seconds_to_period(time_from_start_secs))

#               datetime Sample     Temp time_from_start_secs time_from_start_period
# 1  2017-06-28 13:58:00     A1 13.67870               0 secs                     0S
# 2  2017-06-29 16:08:00     A1 13.34256           94200 secs           1d 2H 10M 0S
# 3  2017-06-30 07:32:00     A1 12.84005          149640 secs          1d 17H 34M 0S
# 4  2017-06-30 19:14:00     A1 12.84005          191760 secs           2d 5H 16M 0S
# 5  2017-07-01 07:40:00     A1 11.83983          236520 secs          2d 17H 42M 0S
# 6  2017-07-01 19:20:00     A1 11.83983          278520 secs           3d 5H 22M 0S
# 7  2017-07-02 07:53:00     A1 11.75332          323700 secs          3d 17H 55M 0S
# 8  2017-07-02 19:06:00     A1 11.75332          364080 secs            4d 5H 8M 0S
# 9  2017-07-03 07:45:00     A1 11.74469          409620 secs          4d 17H 47M 0S
# 10 2017-07-03 19:04:00     A1 11.74469          450360 secs            5d 5H 6M 0S
# 11 2017-07-04 08:15:00     A1 11.45410          497820 secs          5d 18H 17M 0S

Alternatively, you could use min(datetime). In addition, if you need to have the calculation "reset" with each sample, you will want to use group_by -- all in one big swoop we would have:

df %>%
  unite("datetime", c("Date", "Time"), sep = " ") %>%
  group_by(Sample) %>%
  mutate(datetime = ymd_hm(datetime),
         time_secs = datetime - min(start_date))

Answer 2

This seems a fairly simple data manipulation task. What you are essentially trying is a simple group by and time difference.

The code snippet below does what it takes ::

Step 1: Add date and time to same variable so that we can calculate differences

Step 2: Calculate the difference between current time and minimum time for that group

I updated your data to have the two groups; just to show an example.

library(dplyr) # pipes, group by and mutate
library(lubridate) # times 

input_data <- read.table(text = "Date    Time    Sample  Temp
                         2017-06-28  13:58   A1  13.67870139
                         2017-06-29  16:08   A1  13.34256319
                         2017-06-30  07:32   A1  12.84005139
                         2017-06-30  19:14   A1  12.84005139
                         2017-07-01  07:40   A1  11.83983472 
                         2017-07-01  19:20   A1  11.83983472 
                         2017-07-02  07:53   A1  11.75332292 
                         2017-07-02  19:06   A2  11.75332292 
                         2017-07-03  07:45   A2  11.74469167 
                         2017-07-03  19:04   A2  11.74469167 
                         2017-07-04  08:15   A2  11.45409583", 
                         header = TRUE, stringsAsFactors = FALSE) %>%
  mutate(Actual_Time = paste(Date, Time, sep =" ") %>% parse_date_time(., "%y-%m-%d %H:%M")) %>%
  group_by(Sample) %>%
  mutate(Total_Time = difftime(Actual_Time, min(Actual_Time), units = "hours"))

Output

# A tibble: 11 x 6
# Groups:   Sample [2]
Date           Time  Sample   Temp       Actual_Time       Total_Time
<chr>         <chr>  <chr>    <dbl>         <dttm>            <time>
 1 2017-06-28 13:58     A1 13.67870 2017-06-28 13:58:00  0.00000 hours
 2 2017-06-29 16:08     A1 13.34256 2017-06-29 16:08:00 26.16667 hours
 3 2017-06-30 07:32     A1 12.84005 2017-06-30 07:32:00 41.56667 hours
 4 2017-06-30 19:14     A1 12.84005 2017-06-30 19:14:00 53.26667 hours
 5 2017-07-01 07:40     A1 11.83983 2017-07-01 07:40:00 65.70000 hours
 6 2017-07-01 19:20     A1 11.83983 2017-07-01 19:20:00 77.36667 hours
 7 2017-07-02 07:53     A1 11.75332 2017-07-02 07:53:00 89.91667 hours
 8 2017-07-02 19:06     A2 11.75332 2017-07-02 19:06:00  0.00000 hours
 9 2017-07-03 07:45     A2 11.74469 2017-07-03 07:45:00 12.65000 hours
10 2017-07-03 19:04     A2 11.74469 2017-07-03 19:04:00 23.96667 hours
11 2017-07-04 08:15     A2 11.45410 2017-07-04 08:15:00 37.15000 hours