collapseMC_Text {eatGADS}

Recode a multiple choice variable according to a character variable.

Description

Recode an labeled integer variable (based on an multiple choice item), according to a character variable (e.g. an open answer item).

Usage

collapseMC_Text(
  GADSdat,
  mc_var,
  text_var,
  mc_code4text,
  var_suffix = "_r",
  label_suffix = "(recoded)"
)

Arguments

GADSdat

A GADSdat object.

mc_var

The variable name of the multiple choice variable.

text_var

The variable name of the text variable.

mc_code4text

The value label in mc_var that indicates that information from the text variable should be used.

var_suffix

Variable name suffix for the newly created variables. If NULL, variables are overwritten.

label_suffix

Variable label suffix for the newly created variable (only added in the meta data). If NULL no suffix is added.

Details

Multiple choice variables can be represented as labeled integer variables in a GADSdat. Multiple choice items with a forced choice frequently contain an open answer category. However, sometimes open answers overlap with the existing categories in the multiple choice item. collapseMC_Text allows recoding the multiple choice variable based on the open answer variable.

mc_code4text indicates when entries in the text_var should be used. Additionally, entries in the text_var are also used when there are missings on the mc_var. New values for the mc_var are added in the meta data, while preserving the initial ordering of the value labels. Newly added value labels are sorted alphabetically.

For more details see the help vignette: vignette("recoding_forcedChoice", package = "eatGADS").

Value

Returns a GADSdat containing the newly computed variable.

Examples

# Example gads
example_df <- data.frame(ID = 1:5, mc = c("blue", "blue", "green", "other", "other"),
                        open = c(NA, NA, NA, "yellow", "blue"),
                        stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
example_df$mc <- as.factor(example_df$mc)
gads <- import_DF(example_df)

# recode
gads2 <- collapseMC_Text(gads, mc_var = "mc", text_var = "open",
                        mc_code4text = "other")