How to Interpolate Missing Values in R (Including Example)

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You can use the following basic syntax to interpolate missing values in a data frame column in R:

library(dplyr)
library(zoo)

df %
        mutate(column_name = na.approx(column_name))

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Interpolate Missing Values in R

Suppose we have the following data frame in R that shows the total sales made by a store during 15 consecutive days:

#create data frame
df frame(day=1:15,
                 sales=c(3, 6, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20, NA, NA, NA, NA, 35, 39, 44, 49))

#view data frame
df

   day sales
1    1     3
2    2     6
3    3     8
4    4    10
5    5    14
6    6    17
7    7    20
8    8    NA
9    9    NA
10  10    NA
11  11    NA
12  12    35
13  13    39
14  14    44
15  15    49

Notice that we’re missing sales numbers for four days in the data frame.

If we create a simple line chart to visualize the sales over time, here’s what it would look like:

#create line chart to visualize sales
plot(df$sales, type='o', pch=16, col='steelblue', xlab='Day', ylab='Sales')

To fill in the missing values, we can use the na.approx() function from the zoo package along with the mutate() function from the dplyr package:

library(dplyr)
library(zoo)

#interpolate missing values in 'sales' column
df %
        mutate(sales = na.approx(sales))

#view updated data frame
df

   day sales
1    1     3
2    2     6
3    3     8
4    4    10
5    5    14
6    6    17
7    7    20
8    8    23
9    9    26
10  10    29
11  11    32
12  12    35
13  13    39
14  14    44
15  15    49

Notice that each of the missing values has been replaced.

If we create another line chart to visualize the updated data frame, here’s what it would look like:

#create line chart to visualize sales
plot(df$sales, type='o', pch=16, col='steelblue', xlab='Day', ylab='Sales')

Notice that the values chosen by the na.approx() function seem to fit the trend in the data quite well.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials provide additional information on how to handle missing values in R:

How to Find and Count Missing Values in R
How to Impute Missing Values in R
How to Use is.na Function in R