R: Look for keywords variable names and descriptions

lookfor {questionr} | R Documentation

## Look for keywords variable names and descriptions

### Description

`lookfor` emulates the `lookfor` Stata command in R. It supports searching into the variable names of regular R data frames as well as into SPSS and Stata datasets loaded in R via the haven, in which case it will also search variable descriptions (labels). The command is meant to help users finding variables in large datasets.

### Usage

    lookfor(data, ..., labels = TRUE, ignore.case = TRUE, details = FALSE)

### Arguments

`data` | a data frame
`...` | list of keywords, a character string (or several character strings), which can be formatted as a regular expression suitable for a `grep` pattern, or a vector of keywords; displays all variables if not specified
`labels` | whether or not to search variable labels (descriptions); `TRUE` by default
`ignore.case` | whether or not to make the keywords case sensitive; `TRUE` by default (case is ignored during matching)
`details` | add details about each variable (see examples)

### Details

The function looks into the variable names for matches to the keywords. If the data frame has been imported into R with haven package, then variable labels are included in the search scope. If labelled package is installed, variable labels of data.frame imported with foreign or memisc packages will also be taken into account.

### Value

a data frame featuring the variable position, name and description (if it exists) in the original data frame

### Author(s)

François Briatte <f.briatte@gmail.com>

### Source

Based on the behaviour of the `lookfor` command in Stata.

### See Also

`query` in the `memisc` package

### Examples

    lookfor(iris)
    # Look for a single keyword.
    lookfor(iris, "petal")
    lookfor(iris, "s")
    # Look for with a regular expression
    lookfor(iris, "petal|species")
    lookfor(iris, "s$")
    # Look for with several keywords
    lookfor(iris, "pet", "sp")
    lookfor(iris, "pet", "sp", "width")
    # Load memisc package and example data.
    ## Not run: require(memisc)
    nes1948.por <- UnZip("anes/NES1948.ZIP","NES1948.POR", package="memisc")
    nes1948 <- spss.portable.file(nes1948.por)
    # Look for a vector of keywords.
    lookfor(nes1948, c("Truman", "Dewey"))
    # Look for a regular expression.
    lookfor(nes1948, "truman|dewey")
    # Look for a phrase.
    lookfor(nes1948, "personal attribute")
    ## End(Not run)
    # Labelled data
    data(fecondite)
    lookfor(femmes)
    lookfor(femmes, "date")
    # Display details
    lookfor(femmes, details = TRUE)

[Package questionr version 0.6.3 Index]