% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/coalesce.R
\name{coalesce}
\alias{coalesce}
\title{Find first non-missing element}
\usage{
coalesce(...)
}
\arguments{
\item{...}{<\code{\link[rlang:dyn-dots]{dynamic-dots}}> Vectors. Inputs should be
recyclable (either be length 1 or same length as the longest vector) and
coercible to a common type. If data frames, they are coalesced column by
column.}
}
\value{
A vector the same length as the first \code{...} argument with
missing values replaced by the first non-missing value.
}
\description{
Given a set of vectors, \code{coalesce()} finds the first non-missing value
at each position. This is inspired by the SQL \code{COALESCE} function
which does the same thing for \code{NULL}s.
}
\examples{
# Use a single value to replace all missing values
x <- sample(c(1:5, NA, NA, NA))
coalesce(x, 0L)

# Or match together a complete vector from missing pieces
y <- c(1, 2, NA, NA, 5)
z <- c(NA, NA, 3, 4, 5)
coalesce(y, z)

# Supply lists by with dynamic dots
vecs <- list(
  c(1, 2, NA, NA, 5),
  c(NA, NA, 3, 4, 5)
)
coalesce(!!!vecs)
}
\seealso{
\code{\link[=na_if]{na_if()}} to replace specified values with a \code{NA}.
\code{\link[tidyr:replace_na]{tidyr::replace_na()}} to replace \code{NA} with a value
}