Shift multiple columns, each with a different offset

Question

I have a data.table like this:

 date a b c d e f 
 2008 1 5 3 6 9 8 
 2008 3 6 2 1 5 8
 2008 2 8 3 4 3 0
 2009 5 5 3 6 9 8
 2009 3 3 2 2 5 5
 2010 2 8 3 7 7          


        

Answer 1

You can use Map to apply a different n to each column:

cols <- setdiff(names(DT), "date")
DT[, (cols) := Map(shift, .SD, seq_along(.SD) - 1L, fill = 0), .SDcols = cols]

> DT
   date a b c d e f
1: 2008 1 0 0 0 0 0
2: 2008 3 5 0 0 0 0
3: 2008 2 6 3 0 0 0
4: 2009 5 8 2 6 0 0
5: 2009 3 5 3 1 9 0
6: 2010 2 3 3 4 5 8