dplyr: Difference between unique and distinct

Question

Seems the number of resulting rows is different when using distinct vs unique. The data set I am working with is huge. Hope the code is OK to understand.

dt2a &l         


        

Answer 1

This appears to be a result of the group_by Consider this case

dt<-data.frame(g=rep(c("a","b"), each=3),
    v=c(2,2,5,2,7,7))

dt %>% group_by(g) %>% unique()
# Source: local data frame [4 x 2]
# Groups: g
# 
#   g v
# 1 a 2
# 2 a 5
# 3 b 2
# 4 b 7

dt %>% group_by(g) %>% distinct()
# Source: local data frame [2 x 2]
# Groups: g
# 
#   g v
# 1 a 2
# 2 b 2

dt %>% group_by(g) %>% distinct(v)
# Source: local data frame [4 x 2]
# Groups: g
# 
#   g v
# 1 a 2
# 2 a 5
# 3 b 2
# 4 b 7

When you use distinct() without indicating which variables to make distinct, it appears to use the grouping variable.