Return Index Position of First Non-NA Value in R (Example Code)

In this R tutorial you’ll learn how to find the first vector element that is not NA.

Creating Example Data

x <- c(NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 99, NA, NA, 99, NA)    # Example vector in R
x                                                 # Display example vector in RStudio console
#  [1] NA NA NA NA NA 99 NA NA 99 NA

Example: Finding Index Position of First Non-NA Value in Vector

which(!is.na(x))[1]                               # Get index of first actual value
# [1] 6

Related Tutorials

Below, you may find some further resources on topics such as data.table, data conversion, data inspection, and indices:

• Convert Variable of data.table to Vector by Its Index Position
• Find Missing Values in R
• Return Only Value of Table Element without Index & Name
• Shift Variable to First Index Position of Data Frame