Retaining other columns in input dataframe

[plubbe]

Is there any way we can enable the software's output to include the additional columns of the input?

I'm thinking specifically of presence/absence signifiers, which are currently stripped from the input after thinning. Users are then left with the unenviable task of re-determining which points are presence (1) and which are (pseudo)absence. In my case I now seem to have generated a lot of data that isn't in the input data.frame and therefore has no presence/absence designation (i.e., I tried using dplyr to join the dataframes, pre-thinning and post-thinning, and ended up with a whole load of NAs). Retaining the extra columns would prevent this issue and would make the package useable at any stage of the data preparation process (i.e., regardless of which columns are associated with the input as long as the minimum columns are present)

[e42mercury]

I second this request and in the meantime, I can offer a workaround in Excel.

1. In the output file, I added a new column that multiplies Lat*Long. This creates a unique "Lat/Long ID" for each row.
2. In the original file, I did the same and pasted this records into the same spreadsheet.
3. I used VLOOKUP (exact match) to match records according to their "Lat/Long ID", and I was able to join the data in the thinned file and the original file.

In my case, I want to retain the gbifID from the GBIF database. This comes directly from the GBIF database, so it is a good way to me (and others) to keep track of which record we're looking at.

Hope this helps. -Erik