R: subset a data frame based on conditions from another data frame

Question

Here is a problem I am trying to solve. Say, I have two data frames like the following:

observations <- data.frame(id = rep(rep(c(1,2,3,4), each=5), 5),
         


        

Answer 1

Here's a proposal with merge:

# merge both data frames
dat <- merge(observations, sampletimes, by = "id")
# extract valid rows
dat2 <- dat[dat$time > dat$time1 & dat$time < dat$time2, seq(4)]
# sort
dat2[order(dat2$time, dat2$id), ]

The result:

    id time measurement location
11   1    3    7.086246        a
141  2    3    6.893162        b
251  3    3   16.052627        c
376  4    3   -6.559494        d
47   1    8   11.506810        e
137  2    8   10.959782        f
267  3    8   11.079759        g
402  4    8   11.082015        h
83   1   13    5.584257        i
218  2   13   -1.714845        j
283  3   13  -11.196792        k
418  4   13    8.887907        l
99   1   18    1.656558        m
234  2   18   16.573179        n
364  3   18    6.522298        o
454  4   18    1.005123        p
125  1   23   -1.995719        q
250  2   23   -6.676464        r
360  3   23   10.514282        s
490  4   23    3.863357        t

Answer 2

Not efficient , but do the job :

 subset(merge(observations,sampletimes), time > time1 & time < time2)
        id time measurement location time1 time2
    11   1    3    3.180321        a     2     4
    47   1    8    6.040612        e     7     9
    83   1   13   -5.999317        i    12    14
    99   1   18    2.689414        m    17    19
    125  1   23   12.514722        q    22    24
    137  2    8    4.420679        f     7     9
    141  2    3   11.492446        b     2     4
    218  2   13    6.672506        j    12    14
    234  2   18   12.290339        n    17    19
    250  2   23   12.610828        r    22    24
    251  3    3    8.570984        c     2     4
    267  3    8   -7.112291        g     7     9
    283  3   13    6.287598        k    12    14
    360  3   23   11.941846        s    22    24
    364  3   18   -4.199001        o    17    19
    376  4    3    7.133370        d     2     4
    402  4    8   13.477790        h     7     9
    418  4   13    3.967293        l    12    14
    454  4   18   12.845535        p    17    19
    490  4   23   -1.016839        t    22    24

EDIT

Since you have more than 5 millions rows, you should give a try to a data.table solution:

library(data.table)
OBS <- data.table(observations)
SAM <- data.table(sampletimes)
merge(OBS,SAM,allow.cartesian=TRUE,by='id')[time > time1 & time < time2]