Consolidate multiplicate observations in a nif object

Usage

gather_duplicates(
  obj,
  id_field = "NTIME",
  duplicate_function = mean,
  na_rm = TRUE,
  silent = NULL
)

Arguments

obj

A nif object.

id_field

Character vector of additional field(s) used (together with ID, CMT, AMT, EVID, and ANALYTE) to define duplicate groups. Defaults to "NTIME".

duplicate_function

A function applied to numeric columns within each duplicate group (e.g., mean, median, sum). Defaults to mean.

na_rm

Logical. Remove NA values before applying duplicate_function? Defaults to TRUE.

silent

Logical or NULL. Suppress informational messages? NULL uses the package default.

Value

A nif object with multiplicate observations consolidated.

Details

Collapses replicate measurements (e.g., triplicate ECG readings) that share the same subject, analyte, compartment, and nominal time point into a single row by applying duplicate_function to the dependent variable and time-related fields.

Baseline covariates are preserved safely: they are separated before aggregation and re-joined by ID afterward, so they are never set to NA due to row-level inconsistencies.

Duplicate groups are defined by ID, CMT, AMT, EVID, ANALYTE, and id_field. The aggregation function is applied to DV, TIME, NTIME, TAD, and TAFD (except those used as grouping fields). Rows with MDV == 1 are excluded before processing.