Display Compact Abstract of a Data Frame

Compactly display the content and structure of a data.frame, including variable labels. str() is optimized for lists and its output is relatively technical, when it comes to e.g. attributes. summary() on the other hand already calculates some basic statistics.

Usage

abstract(
  x,
  sep = ", ",
  zeroForm = ".",
  maxLevels = 5,
  maxVars = Inf,
  truncate = TRUE
)

# S3 method for class 'Abstract'
print(x, width = NULL, truncate = NULL, print.gap = 2, ...)

Arguments

x

a data.frame to be described

sep

the separator for concatenating the levels of a factor

zeroForm

a symbol to be used when a variable has zero NAs

maxLevels

integer; maximum number of factor levels to display. Default is 5. Set this to Inf if all levels are needed.

maxVars

integer; maximum number of variables (rows) to display. Default is Inf, meaning all variables.

truncate

logical; whether level names exceeding the column width should be truncated. Default is TRUE.

width

console width. If NULL, defaults to options("width").

print.gap

integer; number of spaces between columns

...

further arguments passed to the print method

Value

a data frame of class Abstract with columns:

Nr

column number

Class

column class

ColName

column name

NAs

number of missing values

Levels

factor levels, if applicable

Label

descriptive column label

When printing, the Label column is hidden if no labels are set.

Details

The levels of a factor and describing variable labels (as created by bedrock::label()) will be wrapped within the columns.

The first 4 columns are printed with the needed fix width, the last 2 (Levels and Labels) are wrapped within the column. The width is calculated depending on the width of the screen as given by getOption("width").

toWord has an interface for the class Abstract.

See also

utils::str(), base::summary(), columnWrap(), desc()

Other data.inspection: outlier()

Examples

d.mydata <- CO2

# let's use describing labels
label(d.mydata) <- "CO2 contains data from an experiment on the cold
tolerance of the grass species Echinochloa crus-galli."

label(d.mydata$Plant) <- "an ordered factor with levels Qn1 < Qn2 < Qn3 < ... < Mc1
giving a unique identifier for each plant."

label(d.mydata$Type) <- "a factor with levels Quebec Mississippi giving the
origin of the plant"

abstract(d.mydata)
#> ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 
#> d.mydata :
#>   CO2 contains data from an experiment on the cold tolerance of the
#>   grass species Echinochloa crus-galli.
#> 
#> data frame:	84 obs. of  5 variables
#> 		84 complete cases (100.0%)
#> 
#>   Nr  Class  ColName    NAs  Levels                Label                
#>   1   ord    Plant      .    (12): 1-Qn1, 2-Qn2,   an ordered factor    
#>                              3-Qn3, 4-Qc1, 5-Qc3,  with levels Qn1 < Qn2
#>                              ...                   < Qn3 < ... < Mc1    
#>                                                    giving a unique      
#>                                                    identifier for each  
#>                                                    plant.               
#>   2   fac    Type       .    (2): 1-Quebec,        a factor with levels 
#>                              2-Mississippi         Quebec Mississippi   
#>                                                    giving the origin of 
#>                                                    the plant            
#>   3   fac    Treatment  .    (2): 1-nonchilled,    -                    
#>                              2-chilled                                  
#>   4   num    conc       .                          -                    
#>   5   num    uptake     .                          -                    
#>