# create big data frame:
n <- 1000
x <- data.frame(group = sample(letters[1:4], n, replace=TRUE), condition = sample(LETTERS[1:10], n, replace = TRUE), data = rnorm(n))

# reasonable operations:
marginal.means.1 <- aggregate(data ~ group + condition, data = x, FUN=mean)

# unreasonable operations:
marginal.means.2 <- marginal.means.1[NULL,]

row.counter <- 1
for (condition in levels(x$condition)) {
  for (group in levels(x$group)) {  
    tmp.value <- 0
    tmp.length <- 0
    for (c in 1:nrow(x)) {
      if ((x[c,"group"] == group) & (x[c,"condition"] == condition)) {
        tmp.value <- tmp.value + x[c,"data"]
        tmp.length <- tmp.length + 1
      }
    }
    marginal.means.2[row.counter,"group"] <- group 
    marginal.means.2[row.counter,"condition"] <- condition
    marginal.means.2[row.counter,"data"] <- tmp.value / tmp.length
    row.counter <- row.counter + 1
  }
}

# does it produce the same results?
all.equal(marginal.means.1, marginal.means.2)