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datadictionary

The goal of datadictionary is to create a data dictionary from any dataframe or tibble in your R environment. While other packages exist I found they were complicated to use and/or the output wasn’t what I was after. This package attempts to solve those problems by presenting tabular summaries of the dataset in a format that fits easily in a pane or screen, using a single line of code.

It includes an overall summary of the dataset and at-a-glance summaries of each variable. All variables have a count of missing included, and different summaries are provided based on the data class.

For factors, labelled data and logicals the summary will include the name of each level with the level number in parentheses where appropriate. A value for the count of units in each level is included.

For dates, integers and other numeric types of data the summary includes statistical summaries such as mean, median, mode, minimum and maximum. A value for each is included in the table.

Character variables include only a count of unique values and missing values. This is the default so if you include a class of data that isn’t yet implemented you should get this output.

You can nominate one or more identifier variables, for example individuals and clusters, so you only get a count of unique and missing values rather than nonsense numeric summaries.

You can also include a vector to add labels if you want descriptions included in the document. Lastly, you can opt for the output to write directly to Excel.

Installation

You can install the current version of datadictionary from CRAN using:

install.packages("datadictionary")

You can install the development version of datadictionary from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("DoctorBJones/datadictionary")

Example

You can print a basic data dictionary directly to your console or assign it to an object in your environment:

library(datadictionary)

create_dictionary(esoph)
#>         item    label          class            summary value
#> 1                                       Rows in dataset    88
#> 2                                    Columns in dataset     5
#> 3      agegp No label ordered factor          25-34 (1)    15
#> 4                                             35-44 (2)    15
#> 5                                             45-54 (3)    16
#> 6                                             55-64 (4)    16
#> 7                                             65-74 (5)    15
#> 8                                               75+ (6)    11
#> 9                                               missing     0
#> 10     alcgp No label ordered factor      0-39g/day (1)    23
#> 11                                            40-79 (2)    23
#> 12                                           80-119 (3)    21
#> 13                                             120+ (4)    21
#> 14                                              missing     0
#> 15     tobgp No label ordered factor       0-9g/day (1)    24
#> 16                                            10-19 (2)    24
#> 17                                            20-29 (3)    20
#> 18                                              30+ (4)    20
#> 19                                              missing     0
#> 20    ncases No label        numeric               mean     2
#> 21                                               median     1
#> 22                                                  min     0
#> 23                                                  max    17
#> 24                                              missing     0
#> 25 ncontrols No label        numeric               mean     9
#> 26                                               median     4
#> 27                                                  min     0
#> 28                                                  max    60
#> 29                                              missing     0

esoph_dictionary <- create_dictionary(esoph)

You specify one or more identifier variables by passing a quoted string or vector of quoted strings to id_var. This is useful if you have hierarchical data, for example and have identifiers for individuals, clusters or blocks.


# create fake id variables
mtcars$id1 <- 1:nrow(mtcars)
mtcars$id2 <- mtcars$id1*10

create_dictionary(mtcars, id_var = c("id1", "id2"))
#>    item             label   class            summary value
#> 1                                    Rows in dataset    32
#> 2                                 Columns in dataset    13
#> 3   id1 Unique identifier              unique values    32
#> 4                                            missing     0
#> 5   id2 Unique identifier              unique values    32
#> 6                                            missing     0
#> 7   mpg          No label numeric               mean    20
#> 8                                             median    19
#> 9                                                min  10.4
#> 10                                               max  33.9
#> 11                                           missing     0
#> 12  cyl          No label numeric               mean     6
#> 13                                            median     6
#> 14                                               min     4
#> 15                                               max     8
#> 16                                           missing     0
#> 17 disp          No label numeric               mean   231
#> 18                                            median   196
#> 19                                               min  71.1
#> 20                                               max   472
#> 21                                           missing     0
#> 22   hp          No label numeric               mean   147
#> 23                                            median   123
#> 24                                               min    52
#> 25                                               max   335
#> 26                                           missing     0
#> 27 drat          No label numeric               mean     4
#> 28                                            median     4
#> 29                                               min  2.76
#> 30                                               max  4.93
#> 31                                           missing     0
#> 32   wt          No label numeric               mean     3
#> 33                                            median     3
#> 34                                               min  1.51
#> 35                                               max  5.42
#> 36                                           missing     0
#> 37 qsec          No label numeric               mean    18
#> 38                                            median    18
#> 39                                               min  14.5
#> 40                                               max  22.9
#> 41                                           missing     0
#> 42   vs          No label numeric               mean     0
#> 43                                            median     0
#> 44                                               min     0
#> 45                                               max     1
#> 46                                           missing     0
#> 47   am          No label numeric               mean     0
#> 48                                            median     0
#> 49                                               min     0
#> 50                                               max     1
#> 51                                           missing     0
#> 52 gear          No label numeric               mean     4
#> 53                                            median     4
#> 54                                               min     3
#> 55                                               max     5
#> 56                                           missing     0
#> 57 carb          No label numeric               mean     3
#> 58                                            median     2
#> 59                                               min     1
#> 60                                               max     8
#> 61                                           missing     0

You can also optionally add labels for unlabelled variables. You need to pass a named vector to var_labels where the names correspond to columns in your dataset. The vector must be of the same length as your dataset.


# Create labels as a named vector. 
iris.labels <- c(Sepal.Length = "Sepal length in mm",
                 Sepal.Width = "Sepal width in mm",
                 Petal.Length = "Petal length in mm",
                 Petal.Width = "Petal width in mm",
                 Species = "Species of iris")

create_dictionary(iris, var_labels = iris.labels)
#>            item              label   class            summary value
#> 1                                             Rows in dataset   150
#> 2                                          Columns in dataset     5
#> 3  Sepal.Length Sepal length in mm numeric               mean     6
#> 4                                                      median     6
#> 5                                                         min   4.3
#> 6                                                         max   7.9
#> 7                                                     missing     0
#> 8   Sepal.Width  Sepal width in mm numeric               mean     3
#> 9                                                      median     3
#> 10                                                        min     2
#> 11                                                        max   4.4
#> 12                                                    missing     0
#> 13 Petal.Length Petal length in mm numeric               mean     4
#> 14                                                     median     4
#> 15                                                        min     1
#> 16                                                        max   6.9
#> 17                                                    missing     0
#> 18  Petal.Width  Petal width in mm numeric               mean     1
#> 19                                                     median     1
#> 20                                                        min   0.1
#> 21                                                        max   2.5
#> 22                                                    missing     0
#> 23      Species    Species of iris  factor         setosa (1)    50
#> 24                                             versicolor (2)    50
#> 25                                              virginica (3)    50
#> 26                                                    missing     0

You can also write directly to Excel from the create_dictionary function if you pass a file path and name as a quoted string to the file parameter. There is no visible output for this use.


create_dictionary(ChickWeight, file = "chickweight_dictionary.xlsx")

The package also includes a function to create a summary of a single variable in your dataset. There are no other arguments to this function.


summarise_variable(iris, "Sepal.Length")
#>           item    label   class summary value
#> 1 Sepal.Length No label numeric    mean     6
#> 2                                median     6
#> 3                                   min   4.3
#> 4                                   max   7.9
#> 5                               missing     0

summarise_variable(ChickWeight, "Diet")
#>   item    label  class summary value
#> 1 Diet No label factor   1 (1)   220
#> 2                        2 (2)   120
#> 3                        3 (3)   120
#> 4                        4 (4)   118
#> 5                      missing     0

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.