Fastest way for filling-in missing dates for data.table

Question

I am loading a data.table from CSV file that has date, orders, amount etc. fields.

The input file occasionally does not have data for all dates. For exa

Answer 1

Here is how you fill in the gaps within subgroup

# a toy dataset with gaps in the time series
dt <- as.data.table(read.csv(textConnection('"group","date","x"
"a","2017-01-01",1
"a","2017-02-01",2
"a","2017-05-01",3
"b","2017-02-01",4
"b","2017-04-01",5')))
dt[,date := as.Date(date)]

# the desired dates by group
indx <- dt[,.(date=seq(min(date),max(date),"months")),group]

# key the tables and join them using a rolling join
setkey(dt,group,date)
setkey(indx,group,date)
dt[indx,roll=TRUE]

#>    group       date x
#> 1:     a 2017-01-01 1
#> 2:     a 2017-02-01 2
#> 3:     a 2017-03-01 2
#> 4:     a 2017-04-01 2
#> 5:     a 2017-05-01 3
#> 6:     b 2017-02-01 4
#> 7:     b 2017-03-01 4
#> 8:     b 2017-04-01 5