R: Character conversion of labelled data

characterize {rio} | R Documentation

## Character conversion of labelled data

### Description

Convert labelled variables to character or factor

### Usage

    characterize(x, ...)

    factorize(x, ...)

    ## Default S3 method:
    characterize(x, ...)

    ## S3 method for class 'data.frame'
    characterize(x, ...)

    ## Default S3 method:
    factorize(x, ...)

    ## S3 method for class 'data.frame'
    factorize(x, ...)

### Arguments

`x` | A vector or data frame.
`...` | additional arguments passed to methods

### Details

`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.

### See Also

`gather_attrs`

### Examples

    # 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, "example.csv"))
    import(export(factorize(x), "example.csv"))

    # cleanup
    unlink("example.csv")

[Package rio version 0.5.10 Index]