Merge Two Data Frames by Closest Time

This function merges two data frames based on the closest time in the specified time columns. It can also merge data frames using optional ID columns. The resulting merged data frame contains the closest time matches and the time differences.

Usage

Merge_ByClosestTime(
  DataFrame1,
  DataFrame2,
  TimeVar1,
  TimeVar2,
  IDVar1 = NULL,
  IDVar2 = NULL,
  is_date = FALSE
)

Arguments

DataFrame1

A data frame containing the first set of data.

DataFrame2

A data frame containing the second set of data.

TimeVar1

The name of the time variable in DataFrame1 (as a string).

TimeVar2

The name of the time variable in DataFrame2 (as a string).

IDVar1

Optional. The name of the ID variable in DataFrame1 (as a string). If not provided, no ID-based join is performed.

IDVar2

Optional. The name of the ID variable in DataFrame2 (as a string). If not provided, no ID-based join is performed.

is_date

Logical. Indicates whether the time variables are dates (TRUE) or POSIXct timestamps (FALSE). Defaults to FALSE.

Value

A list containing two elements:

merged_dataframe

A data frame with the closest time matches from both data frames and the time differences.

time_differences

A numeric vector of time differences for each closest match.