Мы можем использовать dplyr
library(dplyr)
df1 %>%
group_by(visitor) %>%
mutate(goal = cummax(match(patient, unique(patient))))
#or with factor
# mutate(goal1 = cummax(as.integer(factor(patient, levels = unique(patient)))))
# A tibble: 10 x 4
# Groups: visitor [1]
# visitor visitdt patient goal
# <int> <chr> <int> <int>
# 1 125469 1/12/2018 15200 1
# 2 125469 1/19/2018 15200 1
# 3 125469 2/16/2018 15200 1
# 4 125469 2/23/2018 52607 2
# 5 125469 3/9/2018 52607 2
# 6 125469 3/16/2018 52607 2
# 7 125469 3/23/2018 15200 2
# 8 125469 3/29/2018 15200 2
# 9 125469 3/30/2018 20589 3
#10 125469 4/6/2018 20589 3
данные
df1 <- structure(list(visitor = c(125469L, 125469L, 125469L, 125469L,
125469L, 125469L, 125469L, 125469L, 125469L, 125469L), visitdt = c("1/12/2018",
"1/19/2018", "2/16/2018", "2/23/2018", "3/9/2018", "3/16/2018",
"3/23/2018", "3/29/2018", "3/30/2018", "4/6/2018"), patient = c(15200L,
15200L, 15200L, 52607L, 52607L, 52607L, 15200L, 15200L, 20589L,
20589L), goal = c(1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 3L, 3L)),
class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA,
-10L))