Matching where the source file has one record/ subject and the to-be-matched file has multiple records/subect

"Sorkin, John" <[email protected]> Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:58:11 +0000
Newsgroups gmane.comp.lang.r.general
Message-ID <DM6PR03MB50493674C99B92FA76A68CF3E2C12@DM6PR03MB5049.namprd03.prod.outlook.com>
I am not showing code, because I don't know how to write the code. I know t=
hat MatchIt performs propensity score matching, but I don't know how to use=
 the function to perform the match I want to conduct.

I have two files
File 1: a list of n  records, 1 record/subject. Each record has a subject n=
umber and a date
File 2: a list of m records m>>n with multiple records/subject but each rec=
ord has a distinct date. All records for a given subject in file 2 have the=
 same subject number, but each record has a different date.

I want to match each record from file 1 with a single record from file 2 ba=
sed on date. Once a record from file 2 is matched with a record from file 1=
, I want to remove all records from file 2 for the subject who was used in =
the match with the subject from file 1 so that the subject from file 2 will=
 not be used in any future match.


Example
file 1                                          file 2
subject   date                              subject   date
1              01/01/2020                  100   01/01/2020
2              01/01/2021                  100   01/10/2021
3                                                   101  02/01/2021
  =

Subject 1 from file 1 is a perfect match for subject 100 from file2. The su=
bjects are matched.
All data from file 2 is removed for subject 100.
Subject 2 from file 1 is then matched with subject 101 from file 2.
If all records from subject 100 had not been removed from file2, subject 2 =
would have been matched to subject 100 date 01/10/2021. I don't want this t=
o happen. Once subject 100 is used to match subject 1, I don't want any oth=
er person from file 1 to be matched with subject 100.

I hope you can help me with this, I suspect, not uncommon matching problem!

Thank you,
John

John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine;
Associate Director for Biostatistics and Informatics, Baltimore VA Medical =
Center Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center;=A0
Former PI Biostatistics and Informatics Core,=A0University of Maryland Scho=
ol of Medicine Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center;
Senior Statistician University of Maryland Center for Vascular Research;

Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine,
10 North Greene Street
GRECC (BT/18/GR)
Baltimore, MD 21201-1524
Cell phone 443-418-5382