Convert labelled variables to character or factor
characterize(x, ...)factorize(x, ...)
# S3 method for default
characterize(x, ...)
# S3 method for data.frame
characterize(x, ...)
# S3 method for default
factorize(x, coerce_character = FALSE, ...)
# S3 method for data.frame
factorize(x, ...)
A vector or data frame.
additional arguments passed to methods
A logical indicating whether to additionally coerce character columns to factor (in factorize). Default FALSE.
characterize converts a vector with a labels attribute of named levels into a character vector. factorize does the same but to factors. This can be useful at two stages of a data workflow: (1) importing labelled data from metadata-rich file formats (e.g., Stata or SPSS), and (2) exporting such data to plain text files (e.g., CSV) in a way that preserves information.
# NOT RUN {
# vector method
x <- structure(1:4, labels = c("A" = 1, "B" = 2, "C" = 3))
characterize(x)
factorize(x)
# data frame method
x <- data.frame(v1 = structure(1:4, labels = c("A" = 1, "B" = 2, "C" = 3)),
v2 = structure(c(1,0,0,1), labels = c("foo" = 0, "bar" = 1)))
str(factorize(x))
str(characterize(x))
# comparison of exported file contents
import(export(x, csv_file <- tempfile(fileext = ".csv")))
import(export(factorize(x), csv_file))
# cleanup
unlink(csv_file)
# }
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