Spread with duplicate identifiers (using tidyverse and %>%) [duplicate]

Answer 1

We can use tidyverse. After grouping by 'start_end', 'id', create a sequence column 'ind' , then spread from 'long' to 'wide' format

library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
df %>%
   group_by(start_end, id) %>%
   mutate(ind = row_number()) %>%
   spread(start_end, date) %>% 
   select(start, end)
#     id      start        end
#* <int>     <fctr>     <fctr>
#1     2 1994-05-01 1996-11-04
#2     4 1979-07-18         NA
#3     5 2005-02-01 2009-09-17
#4     5 2010-10-01 2012-10-06

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Or using tidyr_1.0.0

chop(df, date) %>%
     spread(start_end, date) %>%
     unnest(c(start, end))