Nothing
Nested data"
In autodb: Automatic Database Normalisation for Data Frames
library(autodb)
if (requireNamespace("DiagrammeR", quietly = TRUE)) {
show <- function(x, ...) DiagrammeR::grViz(gv(x, ...), width = "100%")
}else{
show <- function(x, ...) cat(d2(x), sep = "\n")
}
While autodb takes a single data frame for input, its data might not be "flat". As an example, the data might be imported from JSON, using the jsonlite package.
Such nested data frames can be a pain to work with in base R, because many functions aren't designed to handle them. For example, consider the JSON data below.
js <-
'[
{
"a": 1,
"b": [1],
"c": [1, 2],
"d": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 1,
"i.2": "a"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 2,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 2,
"i.2": "b"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 3,
"b": [4, 5, 6],
"c": [5, 6],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": ["a", "b"],
"f": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 3,
"i.2": "c"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 4,
"b": [1],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[3], [3]],
"i": {
"i.1": 4,
"i.2": "d"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
},
{
"a": 5,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 5,
"i.2": "e"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
}
]'
[
{
"a": 1,
"b": [1],
"c": [1, 2],
"d": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 1,
"i.2": "a"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 2,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 2,
"i.2": "b"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 3,
"b": [4, 5, 6],
"c": [5, 6],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": ["a", "b"],
"f": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 3,
"i.2": "c"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 4,
"b": [1],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[3], [3]],
"i": {
"i.1": 4,
"i.2": "d"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
},
{
"a": 5,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 5,
"i.2": "e"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
}
]
R hides a lot of class details when printing; printing as a tibble hides less.
x <- jsonlite::fromJSON(js)
x
print(tibble::as_tibble(x), width = Inf)
autodb has some ability to deal with nested data: specifically, where columns contain lists, data frames, or matrices. When plotting, column classes are described with any common nested class information within angle brackets (<>), and common dimensions are given within square brackets ([]):
show(x)
The first dimension isn't at the top level, since the number of rows is already given in the table's header. For example, column i is a data frame, so has the same number of rows as the main data frame: the size information only gives its column count.
nest_level can be set to limit how deeply nested the given class information can be:
show(x, nest_level = 0)
Dependency discovery and decomposition work as expected:
db <- autodb(x)
show(db)
Also as expected, rejoining the resulting database into a single data frame gives back the original:
y <- rejoin(db)
df_equiv(y, x)
y
Try the autodb package in your browser
Any scripts or data that you put into this service are public.
autodb documentation built on Aug. 4, 2026, 1:08 a.m.
R Package Documentation
Browse R Packages
We want your feedback!
Note that we can't provide technical support on individual packages. You should contact the package authors for that.
library(autodb)
if (requireNamespace("DiagrammeR", quietly = TRUE)) { show <- function(x, ...) DiagrammeR::grViz(gv(x, ...), width = "100%") }else{ show <- function(x, ...) cat(d2(x), sep = "\n") }
While autodb takes a single data frame for input, its data might not be "flat". As an example, the data might be imported from JSON, using the jsonlite package.
Such nested data frames can be a pain to work with in base R, because many functions aren't designed to handle them. For example, consider the JSON data below.
js <- '[ { "a": 1, "b": [1], "c": [1, 2], "d": [ [1, 2], [3, 4] ], "e": [1, 2], "f": [ [1, 2], [3, 4] ], "g": [1, 2], "h": [[1], [1]], "i": { "i.1": 1, "i.2": "a" }, "k": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "l": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "m": [ { "m.1": 1, "m.2": 4 }, { "m.1": 2, "m.2": 5 }, { "m.1": 3, "m.2": 6 } ], "n": [ { "n.1": 1, "n.2": 4 }, { "n.1": 2, "n.2": 5 }, { "n.1": 3, "n.2": 6 } ] }, { "a": 2, "b": [2, 3], "c": [3, 4], "d": [ [5, 6], [7, 8] ], "e": [1, 2], "f": [ [5, 6], [7, 8] ], "g": [2, 1], "h": [[2], [2]], "i": { "i.1": 2, "i.2": "b" }, "k": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "l": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "m": [ { "m.1": 1, "m.2": 4 }, { "m.1": 2, "m.2": 5 }, { "m.1": 3, "m.2": 6 } ], "n": [ { "n.1": 1, "n.2": 4 }, { "n.1": 2, "n.2": 5 }, { "n.1": 3, "n.2": 6 } ] }, { "a": 3, "b": [4, 5, 6], "c": [5, 6], "d": [ [9, 10], [11, 12] ], "e": ["a", "b"], "f": [ [9, 10], [11, 12] ], "g": [1, 2], "h": [[1], [1]], "i": { "i.1": 3, "i.2": "c" }, "k": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "l": [ [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6] ], "m": [ { "m.1": 1, "m.2": 4 }, { "m.1": 2, "m.2": 5 }, { "m.1": 3, "m.2": 6 } ], "n": [ { "n.1": 1, "n.2": 4 }, { "n.1": 2, "n.2": 5 }, { "n.1": 3, "n.2": 6 } ] }, { "a": 4, "b": [1], "c": [3, 4], "d": [ [9, 10], [11, 12] ], "e": [ ["a"], ["b", "c"] ], "f": [ [9, 10] ], "g": [2, 1], "h": [[3], [3]], "i": { "i.1": 4, "i.2": "d" }, "k": [ [1, 6], [2, 7], [3, 8], [4, 9], [5, 10] ], "l": [ [7, 10], [8, 11], [9, 12] ], "m": [ { "m.1": 1, "m.2": 6 }, { "m.1": 2, "m.2": 7 }, { "m.1": 3, "m.2": 8 }, { "m.1": 4, "m.2": 9 }, { "m.1": 5, "m.2": 10 } ], "n": [ { "n.1": 7, "n.2": 10 }, { "n.1": 8, "n.2": 11 }, { "n.1": 9, "n.2": 12 } ] }, { "a": 5, "b": [2, 3], "c": [3, 4], "d": [ [9, 10], [11, 12] ], "e": [ ["a"], ["b", "c"] ], "f": [ [9, 10] ], "g": [1, 2], "h": [[2], [2]], "i": { "i.1": 5, "i.2": "e" }, "k": [ [1, 6], [2, 7], [3, 8], [4, 9], [5, 10] ], "l": [ [7, 10], [8, 11], [9, 12] ], "m": [ { "m.1": 1, "m.2": 6 }, { "m.1": 2, "m.2": 7 }, { "m.1": 3, "m.2": 8 }, { "m.1": 4, "m.2": 9 }, { "m.1": 5, "m.2": 10 } ], "n": [ { "n.1": 7, "n.2": 10 }, { "n.1": 8, "n.2": 11 }, { "n.1": 9, "n.2": 12 } ] } ]'
[
{
"a": 1,
"b": [1],
"c": [1, 2],
"d": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[1, 2],
[3, 4]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 1,
"i.2": "a"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 2,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"e": [1, 2],
"f": [
[5, 6],
[7, 8]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 2,
"i.2": "b"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 3,
"b": [4, 5, 6],
"c": [5, 6],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": ["a", "b"],
"f": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[1], [1]],
"i": {
"i.1": 3,
"i.2": "c"
},
"k": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"l": [
[1, 4],
[2, 5],
[3, 6]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 4
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 5
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 6
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 1,
"n.2": 4
},
{
"n.1": 2,
"n.2": 5
},
{
"n.1": 3,
"n.2": 6
}
]
},
{
"a": 4,
"b": [1],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [2, 1],
"h": [[3], [3]],
"i": {
"i.1": 4,
"i.2": "d"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
},
{
"a": 5,
"b": [2, 3],
"c": [3, 4],
"d": [
[9, 10],
[11, 12]
],
"e": [
["a"],
["b", "c"]
],
"f": [
[9, 10]
],
"g": [1, 2],
"h": [[2], [2]],
"i": {
"i.1": 5,
"i.2": "e"
},
"k": [
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9],
[5, 10]
],
"l": [
[7, 10],
[8, 11],
[9, 12]
],
"m": [
{
"m.1": 1,
"m.2": 6
},
{
"m.1": 2,
"m.2": 7
},
{
"m.1": 3,
"m.2": 8
},
{
"m.1": 4,
"m.2": 9
},
{
"m.1": 5,
"m.2": 10
}
],
"n": [
{
"n.1": 7,
"n.2": 10
},
{
"n.1": 8,
"n.2": 11
},
{
"n.1": 9,
"n.2": 12
}
]
}
]
R hides a lot of class details when printing; printing as a tibble hides less.
x <- jsonlite::fromJSON(js) x print(tibble::as_tibble(x), width = Inf)
autodb has some ability to deal with nested data: specifically, where columns contain lists, data frames, or matrices. When plotting, column classes are described with any common nested class information within angle brackets (<>), and common dimensions are given within square brackets ([]):
show(x)
The first dimension isn't at the top level, since the number of rows is already given in the table's header. For example, column i is a data frame, so has the same number of rows as the main data frame: the size information only gives its column count.
nest_level can be set to limit how deeply nested the given class information can be:
show(x, nest_level = 0)
Dependency discovery and decomposition work as expected:
db <- autodb(x) show(db)
Also as expected, rejoining the resulting database into a single data frame gives back the original:
y <- rejoin(db) df_equiv(y, x) y
Try the autodb package in your browser
Any scripts or data that you put into this service are public.
R Package Documentation
Browse R Packages
We want your feedback!
Note that we can't provide technical support on individual packages. You should contact the package authors for that.
Embedding an R snippet on your website
Add the following code to your website.
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