MplusAutomation (version 0.6-1)

prepareMplusData: Create tab-delimited file and Mplus input syntax from R data.frame

Description

The prepareMplusData function converts an R data.frame object into a tab-delimited file (without header) to be used in an Mplus input file. The corresponding Mplus syntax, including the data file definition and variable names, is printed to the console or optionally to an input file.

Usage

prepareMplusData(df, filename, keepCols, dropCols,
    inpfile = FALSE, interactive = TRUE, overwrite = TRUE)

Arguments

df

The R data.frame to be prepared for Mplus

filename

The path and filename for the tab-delimited data file for use with Mplus. Example: "C:/Mplusdata/data1.dat"

keepCols

A character vector specifying the variable names within df to be output to filename or a numeric vector of the column indices to be output or a logical vector corresponding to the same.

dropCols

A character vector specifying the variable names within df to be omitted from the data output to filename or a numeric vector of the column indices not to be output or a logical vector corresponding to the same.

inpfile

Logical value whether the Mplus syntax should be written to the console or to an input file. Defaults to FALSE. If TRUE, the file name will be the same as filename with the extension changed to .inp. Alterna

interactive

Logical value indicating whether file names should be selected interactively. If filename is missing and interative=TRUE, then a dialogue box will pop up to select a file or a console prompt if in a non interactive contex

overwrite

Logical value indicating whether data and input (if present) files should be overwritten. Defaults to TRUE to be consistent with prior behavior. If FALSE and the file to write the data to already exists, it will throw an

Value

• Invisibly returns a character vector of the Mplus input syntax. Primarily called for its side effect of creating Mplus data files and optionally input files.

Examples

library(foreign)

study5 <- read.spss("reanalysis-study-5-mt-fall-08.sav", to.data.frame=TRUE)
ASData5 <- subset(study5, select=c("ppnum", paste("as", 1:33, sep="")))

prepareMplusData(ASData5, "study5.dat")


# basic example
test01 <- prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test01.dat")

# see that syntax was stored
test01

# tests for keeping and dropping variables
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test02.dat", keepCols = c("mpg", "hp"))
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test03.dat", keepCols = c(1, 2))
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test04.dat",
  keepCols = c(TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE,
  FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE))

prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test05.dat", dropCols = c("mpg", "hp"))
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test06.dat", dropCols = c(1, 2))
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test07.dat",
  dropCols = c(TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE,
  FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE))


# interactive (test08.dat)
prepareMplusData(mtcars, interactive=TRUE)

# write syntax to input file, not stdout
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test09.dat", inpfile=TRUE)

# write syntax to alternate input file, not stdout
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test10.dat", inpfile="test10alt.inp")

# should be error, no file
prepareMplusData(mtcars, interactive=FALSE)

# new warnings if it is going to overwrite files
# (the default to be consistent with prior behavior)
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test10.dat")

# new warnings if it is going to overwrite files
# (the default to be consistent with prior behavior)
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test11.dat", inpfile="test10alt.inp")

# new errors if files exist and overwrite=FALSE
prepareMplusData(mtcars, "test10.dat",
  inpfile="test10alt.inp", overwrite=FALSE)