to {lessR}

Create a Sequence of Numbered Variable Names with a Common Prefix and Width

Description

Generates sequentially numbered variable names, all starting with the same prefix, usually in conjunction with reading data values into R. The advantage over the standard R function paste0 is that to maintains equal widths of the names, such as m08 instead of m8 if some values are m10 or larger up to m99.

Usage

to(prefix, until, from=1, same_size=TRUE, ...)

Arguments

prefix

Character string that begins each variable name.

until

Last name in the sequence, the one with the last number.

from

First name in the sequence, the one with the initial number.

same_size

If TRUE, pads the beginning of each number for the variable name with leading zeros so that all names are of the same width.

...

Other parameter values.

Details

Some data sets, particularly those from surveys, have sequentially numbered variable names, each beginning with the same prefix, such as the first later of the name of a set of related attitude items. This function generates the string of such variable names, generally intended for use in a read statement for reading the data and then naming the variables, or for a subsequent assignment of the names with a names. Relies upon the R paste function.

Author(s)

David W. Gerbing (Portland State University; [e-mail])

See Also

paste.

Examples

# generate: "m01" "m02" "m03" "m04" "m05" "m06" "m07" "m08" "m09" "m10"
to("m", 10)

# generate: "m1"  "m2"  "m3"  "m4"  "m5"  "m6"  "m7"  "m8"  "m9"  "m10"
to("m",10, same_size=FALSE)
# equivalent to standard R function
paste0("m", 1:10)

# generate a 10 x 10 data frame
d <- data.frame(matrix(rnorm(100), nrow=10))
# name the variables in the data frame
names(d) <- to("m", 10)