Merge function for RLum.Data.Curve S4 class objects

This function allows to merge RLum.Data.Curve objects in different ways without modifying the original objects. Merging is always applied on the 2nd column of the object's data matrix.

Supported merge operations are:

"mean" (default)

The mean over the count values is calculated using the function rowMeans.

"median"

The median over the count values is calculated using the function matrixStats::rowMedians.

"sum"

All count values will be summed up using the function rowSums.

"sd"

The standard deviation over the count values is calculated using the function matrixStats::rowSds.

"var"

The variance over the count values is calculated using the function matrixStats::rowVars.

"min"

The min values from the count values is chosen using the function matrixStats::rowMins.

"max"

The max values from the count values is chosen using the function matrixStats::rowMins.

"append"

Appends count values of all curves to one combined data curve. The channel width is automatically re-calculated, but requires a constant channel width of the original data.

"-"

The row sums of the last objects are subtracted from the first object.

"*"

The row sums of the last objects are multiplied with the first object.

"/"

Values of the first object are divided by row sums of the last objects.

Usage

merge_RLum.Data.Curve(object, merge.method = "mean", method.info)

Arguments

object: list of RLum.Data.Curve (required): list of objects to be merged.
merge.method: character (required): method for combining of the objects, e.g. 'mean' (default), 'median', 'sum', see details for further information and allowed methods. Note: Elements in slot info will be taken from the first curve in the list.
method.info: numeric (optional): allows to specify how info elements of the input objects are combined, e.g. 1 means that just the elements from the first object are kept, 2 keeps only the info elements from the 2 object etc. If nothing is provided all elements are combined.

Value

Returns an RLum.Data.Curve object.

Note

The information from the slot recordType is taken from the first object in the input list. The slot 'curveType' is filled with the name merged.

S3-generic support

This function is fully operational via S3-generics: +, -, /, *, merge

Function version

0.2.1

Author

Sebastian Kreutzer, Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University (Germany) , RLum Developer Team

How to cite

Kreutzer, S., 2025. merge_RLum.Data.Curve(): Merge function for RLum.Data.Curve S4 class objects. Function version 0.2.1. In: Kreutzer, S., Burow, C., Dietze, M., Fuchs, M.C., Schmidt, C., Fischer, M., Friedrich, J., Mercier, N., Philippe, A., Riedesel, S., Autzen, M., Mittelstrass, D., Gray, H.J., Galharret, J., Colombo, M., Steinbuch, L., Boer, A.d., 2025. Luminescence: Comprehensive Luminescence Dating Data Analysis. R package version 1.1.0. https://r-lum.github.io/Luminescence/

Examples


##load example data
data(ExampleData.XSYG, envir = environment())

##grep first and 3d TL curves
TL.curves  <- get_RLum(OSL.SARMeasurement$Sequence.Object, recordType = "TL (UVVIS)")
TL.curve.1 <- TL.curves[[1]]
TL.curve.3 <- TL.curves[[3]]

##plot single curves
plot_RLum(TL.curve.1)

plot_RLum(TL.curve.3)


##subtract the 1st curve from the 2nd and plot
TL.curve.merged <- merge_RLum.Data.Curve(list(TL.curve.3, TL.curve.1), merge.method = "/")
#> Warning: [merge_RLum.Data.Curve()] 8 'inf' values have been replaced by 0 in the matrix
plot_RLum(TL.curve.merged)