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Variable labels

7 messages · Fredrik Karlsson, PIKAL Petr, Robert Knight +1 more

Original
Steven Yen
# 
I insert variable with the expss function as shown below. No error 
message. My question is, how to save the variable labels in the data 
frame so that I can click to read the labels. Thank you.

mydata<-read_excel("data/Excel/hseinv.xlsx",na=".")
library(expss)
mydata=apply_labels(mydata,
 ??????????????????? year?? ="1947-1988",
 ??????????????????? inv??? ="real housing inv, millions $",
 ??????????????????? pop??? ="population, 1000s",
 ??????????????????? price? ="housing price index; 1982 = 1",
 ??????????????????? linv?? ="log(inv)",
 ??????????????????? lpop?? ="log(pop)",
 ??????????????????? lprice? ="log(price)",
 ??????????????????? t?????? ="time trend: t=1,...,42",
 ??????????????????? invpc?? ="per capita inv: inv/pop",
 ??????????????????? linvpc? ="log(invpc)",
 ??????????????????? lprice_1="lprice[_n-1]",
 ??????????????????? linvpc_1="linvpc[_n-1]",
 ??????????????????? gprice? ="lprice - lprice_1",
 ??????????????????? ginvpc? ="linvpc - linvpc_1")
Fredrik Karlsson
# 
Hi,

I am sorry but I don't understand your question, Generally, "clicking" is
not something you can assume to be implemented for anything in R.
However, if you read the manual for the package

 https://gdemin.github.io/expss/

you get an example at the bottom where an illustration of how the package
can be used to create Excel tables which would then be easy to interact
with through clicking.
Is that what you wanted?

Fredrik
On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 4:49 AM Steven Yen <styen at ntu.edu.tw> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Steven Yen
    

    

      
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Thanks. What I need ?appears? simple. The .RData file is provided by a third party (likely converted from a different data format such as SAS in which variable labels (not value labels) are common). When I load the binary file, in the ?environment? I see, as expected, a data frame showing how many observations for how many variables. In addition, there is also an item (in the environment) (say ?desc?) containing a list of variable labels (definitions).  I simply like to know how to get ?desc? in the environment?-it is a convenient way to show definitions of all variables when you send a binary data file to a third party. Thank you.

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      PIKAL Petr
    

    

      
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Hi.

Maybe you could use attributes.

dput(vec.m)
structure(list(Group.1 = c(2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 
2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 2003, 2021, 2003, 
2021), variable = structure(c(1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 3L, 3L, 4L, 4L, 
5L, 5L, 6L, 6L, 7L, 7L, 8L, 8L, 9L, 9L), .Label = c("s6", "s5", 
"s4", "s3", "s2", "s1.5", "s.7", "s.5", "pod"), class = "factor"), 
    value = c(3.29, 0.525, 5.01, 1.385, 16.38, 7.67, 5.535, 3.28, 
    25.49, 24.41, 10.285, 12.79, 8.905, 12.92, 1.68, 3.67, 2.595, 
    5.06)), row.names = c(NA, -18L), class = "data.frame")

            

      
      
      
    

        
You can access them by attributes or attr.

 attributes(vec.m)
$row.names
 [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

$names
[1] "Group.1"  "variable" "value"   

$class
[1] "data.frame"

$some.kind.of.value
[1] "some specialvector"     "another special vector" "just ordinary vector"

            

      
      
      
    

        
[1] "some specialvector"     "another special vector" "just ordinary vector"

            

      
      
      
    

        
Cheers
Petr

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    
2 days later

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Robert Knight
    

    

      
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Hi Steven,

You make great sense wanting to have labels for your variables.   When in
RStudio, the little arrow beside "mydata" in the Environment tab can be
clicked and you see all the variables there.  And so you would like to see
a description under the variable names.   Here is one way to accomplish
that. The following is not pseudocode, it's the actual code you should use.

Step 1, create a function that applies an attribute called "description" to
a variable.

desc <- function(obj) attr(obj, "description")

Step 2,  use attribute to apply the description

attr(mydata$invpc, "description") <- "Per capita inventory"



Step 3, Now you can either click the arrow beside "mydata" on the
environment tab and see that written description with the word
"description" in quotes.  You can also type

desc(mydata$invpc)

And that will provide you the associated description in text form.


Robert D. Knight, MBA

Developer of Meal Plan and Grocery List maker for Android and iOS.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.robertknight.MPGL

        
On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 9:49 PM Steven Yen <styen at ntu.edu.tw> wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Robert Knight
    

    

      
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Actually, I just found exactly what you want.  Before that though, I am
having a hard time finding any such cool job despite having even had
classes with some great professors in economics at UND, and so I work in a
completely non data related thing.

Here is exactly what you want, code included.  Then on the right side of
Rstudio you can click the word "desc" and get a table of the variable name
and it's description.

variable <- c("year", "inv", "pop", "price", "linv", "lpop", "lprice", "t",
       "invpc", "linvpc", "lprice_1", "linvpc_1", "gprice", "ginvpc")
description <- c("1947-1988","real housing inv, millions $","population,
1000s","housing price index; 1982 = 1",
       "log(inv)","log(pop)","log(price)","time trend: t=1,...,42","per
capita inv: inv/pop",
       "log(invpc)","lprice[_n-1]","linvpc[_n-1]","lprice -
lprice_1","linvpc - linvpc_1")
desc <- cbind(variable, description)

Robert D. Knight, MBA

Developer of Meal Plan and Grocery List maker for Android and iOS.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.robertknight.MPGL

        
On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 9:49 PM Steven Yen <styen at ntu.edu.tw> wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Steven Yen
    

    

      
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Thanks.

        
On 2021/5/16 ?? 11:52, Robert Knight wrote: