Replace NA in column with value in adjacent column
It didn't work because status was a factor. When you mix factor with numeric then numeric is the least restrictive. By forcing status to be character you get the results you're after and the column is now a character vector:
TEST$UNIT[is.na(TEST$UNIT)] <- as.character(TEST$STATUS[is.na(TEST$UNIT)])## UNIT STATUS TERMINATED START STOP## 1 ACTIVE ACTIVE 1999-07-06 2007-04-23 2008-12-05## 2 INACTIVE INACTIVE 2008-12-05 2008-12-06 4712-12-31## 3 200 ACTIVE 2000-08-18 2004-06-01 2007-01-31## 4 200 ACTIVE 2000-08-18 2007-02-01 2008-04-18## 5 200 INACTIVE 2000-08-18 2008-04-19 2010-11-28## 6 200 ACTIVE 2008-08-18 2010-11-29 2010-12-29## 7 200 INACTIVE 2008-08-18 2010-12-30 4712-12-31## 8 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2007-10-29 2008-02-04## 9 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2008-02-05 2008-06-29## 10 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2008-06-30 2009-02-06## 11 300 INACTIVE 1999-03-15 2009-02-07 4712-12-31
You have to do
TEST$UNIT[is.na(TEST$UNIT)] <- TEST$STATUS[is.na(TEST$UNIT)]so that the value will be replaced with the adjacent value. Otherwise there is a mismatch between the number of values to be replaced and the values to replace them with. This would result in the values being replaced in row order. It works in this case because the two values being replaced are the first two.
TEST$UNIT = ifelse(is.na(TEST$UNIT), paste(TEST$STATUS),paste(TEST$UNIT));TEST UNIT STATUS TERMINATED START STOP1 ACTIVE ACTIVE 1999-07-06 2007-04-23 2008-12-052 INACTIVE INACTIVE 2008-12-05 2008-12-06 4712-12-313 200 ACTIVE 2000-08-18 2004-06-01 2007-01-314 200 ACTIVE 2000-08-18 2007-02-01 2008-04-185 200 INACTIVE 2000-08-18 2008-04-19 2010-11-286 200 ACTIVE 2008-08-18 2010-11-29 2010-12-297 200 INACTIVE 2008-08-18 2010-12-30 4712-12-318 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2007-10-29 2008-02-049 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2008-02-05 2008-06-2910 300 ACTIVE 2006-09-19 2008-06-30 2009-02-0611 300 INACTIVE 1999-03-15 2009-02-07 4712-12-31