col_type: Column Types

In REDCapExporter: Automated Construction of R Data Packages from REDCap Projects

Column Types

Description

Define a type for each column of the records for a REDCap project based on the metadata for the project.

Usage

col_type(
  x,
  factors = TRUE,
  lubridate_args = list(quiet = TRUE, tz = NULL, locale = Sys.getlocale("LC_TIME"),
    truncated = 0),
  ...
)

Arguments

x	a rcer_metadata or rcer_raw_metadata object
factors	If TRUE (default) then variables reported via drop-down lists and radio buttons are set up to be factors. If FALSE, then the column type will be character.
lubridate_args	a list of arguments passed to the date and time parsing calls. See Details.
...	not currently used

Details

REDCap text fields for dates and times are formatted via lubridate

REDCap	lubridate parsing function
---------------------	--------------------------
date_mdy	mdy
date_dmy	dmy
date_ymd	ymd
datetime_dmy	dmy_hm
datetime_mdy	mdy_hm
datetime_ymd	ymd_hm
datetime_seconds_dmy	dmy_hms
datetime_seconds_mdy	mdy_hms
datetime_seconds_ymd	ymd_hms
time	hm
time_mm_ss	ms

Other text files are coerced as

REDCap	R coercion
---------------------	--------------------------
number	as.numeric
number_1dp	as.numeric
number_2dp	as.numeric
integer	as.integer
..default..	as.character

Variables inputted into REDCap via radio button or dropdown lists (multiple choice - pick one) are coerced to factors by default but can be returned as characters if the argument factors = FALSE is set.

Calculated and slider (visual analog scale) variables are coerced via as.numeric.

Yes/No and True/False variables are include as integer values 0 = No or False, and 1 for Yes or True.

Checkboxes are the most difficult to work with between the metadata and records. A checkbox field_name in the metadata could be, for example, "eg_checkbox" and the columns in the records will be "eg_checkbox___<code>" were "code" could be numbers, or character strings. REDCapExporter attempts to coerce the "eg_checkbox___<code>" columns to integer values, 0 = unchecked and 1 = checked.

Value

a rcer_col_type object

Examples

data("avs_raw_metadata")
col_type(avs_raw_metadata)

REDCapExporter documentation built on April 4, 2025, 2:29 a.m.