CFfactor_units {CFtime} | R Documentation |
Number of base time units in each factor level
Description
Given a factor as returned by CFfactor()
and the CFtime
instance from
which the factor was derived, this function will return a numeric vector with
the number of time units in each level of the factor.
Usage
CFfactor_units(cf, f)
Arguments
cf |
CFtime. An instance of CFtime. |
f |
factor or list. A factor or a list of factors derived from the
parameter |
Details
The result of this function is useful to convert between absolute and relative values. Climate change anomalies, for instance, are usually computed by differencing average values between a future period and a baseline period. Going from average values back to absolute values for an aggregate period (which is typical for temperature and precipitation, among other variables) is easily done with the result of this function, without having to consider the specifics of the calendar of the data set.
If the factor f
is for an epoch (e.g. spanning multiple years and the
levels do not indicate the specific year), then the result will indicate the
number of time units of the period in a regular single year. In other words,
for an epoch of 2041-2060 and a monthly factor on a standard calendar with a
days
unit, the result will be c(31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31)
.
Leap days are thus only considered for the 366_day
and all_leap
calendars.
Note that this function gives the number of time units in each level of the
factor - the actual number of data points in the cf
instance per factor
level may be different. Use CFfactor_coverage()
to determine the actual
number of data points or the coverage of data points relative to the factor
level.
Value
If f
is a factor, a numeric vector with a length equal to the
number of levels in the factor, indicating the number of time units in each
level of the factor. If f
is a list of factors, a list with each element
a numeric vector as above.
Examples
cf <- CFtime("days since 2001-01-01", "365_day", 0:364)
f <- CFfactor(cf, "dekad")
CFfactor_units(cf, f)