lib_metadata_name_lookup: Create and apply metadata-name lookup rules

In OpenSpecy: Analyze, Process, Identify, and Share Raman and (FT)IR Spectra

Create and apply metadata-name lookup rules

Description

lib_metadata_name_lookup() returns the default editable rules used to merge synonymous metadata columns. lib_clean_name() converts names to lowercase underscore form. lib_clean_metadata() cleans table names and coalesces columns that map to the same canonical name.

Usage

lib_metadata_name_lookup(
  ...,
  regex = NULL,
  defaults = TRUE,
  match_without_underscores = TRUE,
  match_singular_plural = TRUE
)

lib_clean_name(x)

lib_clean_metadata(
  x,
  name_lookup = lib_metadata_name_lookup(),
  clean_values = FALSE
)

Arguments

...	named character vectors of exact aliases, where each argument name is the canonical name, or data.frame/data.table rule tables with canonical_name, source_name, and optional regex columns.
regex	an optional named character vector or named list of regular expressions. Names identify the canonical metadata names.
defaults	logical; whether to include OpenSpecy's default semantic aliases before merging user rules.
match_without_underscores	logical; whether names that differ only by underscores should match automatically.
match_singular_plural	logical; whether names that differ only by one terminal s should match automatically.
x	a character vector of names for lib_clean_name(), or a data.frame/data.table for lib_clean_metadata().
name_lookup	a table returned by lib_metadata_name_lookup() or a compatible rule table. Use NULL to clean names without alias merging.
clean_values	logical; whether lib_clean_metadata() should also lowercase, trim, ASCII-normalize, and normalize blank/unknown character or factor metadata values.

Details

Exact rules determine a column's target before automatic matching that can ignore underscores and a single terminal plural s. When values are coalesced, canonical and mechanically equivalent canonical names come before semantic aliases. Regular-expression rules are applied last to names that remain unmatched. Regex patterns are evaluated against names after lib_clean_name() has been applied.

Matching options selected in lib_metadata_name_lookup() are stored with the returned table and used by lib_clean_metadata(). User rules supplied through ... are merged with the defaults. Set defaults = FALSE to construct a lookup from only user rules.

Value

lib_metadata_name_lookup() returns a data.table of rules. lib_clean_name() returns a character vector. lib_clean_metadata() returns a data.table with cleaned, coalesced columns.

Examples

lib_clean_name(c("User Name", "Laser (%)", "Method...3"))

name_lookup <- lib_metadata_name_lookup(
  project_code = "campaign name",
  regex = list(instrument_mode = "^method_[0-9]+$")
)
metadata <- data.frame(
  UserName = c("A", NA),
  user_name = c(NA, "B"),
  Campaign.Name = c("one", "two"),
  Method.23 = c("ftir", "raman")
)
lib_clean_metadata(metadata, name_lookup)

OpenSpecy documentation built on Oct. 6, 2026, 1:07 a.m.