build_dict {dataMeta}

Build a data dictionary for a dataset.

Description

build_dict constructs a data dictionary for a dataset with the aid of a data linker. This is the second function used in this package. For the function to run, the following parameters are needed.

Usage

build_dict(my.data, linker, option_description = NULL,
  prompt_varopts = TRUE)

Arguments

my.data

Data.frame. The data set for which the user is creating the dictionary for.

linker

Data.frame. A data frame that has the variable names from the original dataset, and also a avriable type that will tell the dictionary whether to list unique item options or a range of values for each variable name.

option_description

A vector that has the description of each variable option in the order in which these appear and depending on how the variable type was set while building the linker data frame. If using the prompt_varopts option, this value must be NULL.

prompt_varopts

Logical. Whether to add the option_description manually as prompted by R. Default is set to TRUE. If FALSE, an option_description vector must be provided.

Value

A data frame that will serve as a data dictionary for an original dataset. The user will have the option to add this dictionary as an attribute to the original dataset with the other package functions.

Examples

# example original data set for which a dictionary will be made
data("esoph")
my.data <- esoph

# Linker: Add description for each variable names and variable type
variable_description <- c("age group in years", "alcohol consumption in gm/day", 
"tobacco consumption in gm/day", "number of cases (showing a range)", 
"number of controls (showing range)")

variable_type <- c(0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
linker <- build_linker(my.data = my.data, variable_description = variable_description, 
variable_type = variable_type)
linker

# Data dictionary
# For this data set, no further option description is needed.
dictionary <- build_dict(my.data = my.data, linker = linker, option_description = NULL, 
prompt_varopts = FALSE)
dictionary