as_discrete: Turn continuous data into discrete bins
In cheapr: Simple Functions to Save Time and Memory

as_discrete

R Documentation

Turn continuous data into discrete bins

Description

This is a cheapr version of cut.numeric() which is more efficient and prioritises pretty-looking breaks by default through the use of get_breaks(). Out-of-bounds values can be included naturally through the include_oob argument. Left-closed (right-open) intervals are returned by default in contrast to cut's default right-closed intervals. Furthermore there is flexibility in formatting the interval bins, allowing the user to specify formatting functions and symbols for the interval close and open symbols.

Usage

as_discrete(x, ...)

## S3 method for class 'numeric'
as_discrete(
  x,
  breaks = if (left_closed) get_breaks(x) else cheapr_rev(-get_breaks(-x)),
  left_closed = TRUE,
  include_endpoint = FALSE,
  include_oob = FALSE,
  ordered = FALSE,
  intv_start_fun = prettyNum,
  intv_end_fun = prettyNum,
  intv_closers = c("[", "]"),
  intv_openers = c("(", ")"),
  intv_sep = ",",
  inf_label = NULL,
  ...
)

## S3 method for class 'integer64'
as_discrete(x, ...)

Arguments

`x`	A numeric vector.
`...`	Extra arguments passed onto methods.
`breaks`	Break-points. The default option creates pretty looking breaks. Unlike `cut()`, the `breaks` arg cannot be a number denoting the number of breaks you want. To generate breakpoints this way use `get_breaks()`.
`left_closed`	Left-closed intervals or right-closed intervals?
`include_endpoint`	Include endpoint? Default is `FALSE`.
`include_oob`	Include out-of-bounds values? Default is `FALSE`. This is equivalent to `breaks = c(breaks, Inf)` or `breaks = c(-Inf, breaks)` when `left_closed = FALSE`. If `include_endpoint = TRUE`, the endpoint interval is prioritised before the out-of-bounds interval. This behaviour cannot be replicated easily with `cut()`. For example, these 2 expressions are not equivalent: cut(10, c(9, 10, Inf), right = F, include.lowest = T) != as_discrete(10, c(9, 10), include_endpoint = T, include_oob = T)
`ordered`	Should result be an ordered factor? Default is `FALSE`.
`intv_start_fun`	Function used to format interval start points.
`intv_end_fun`	Function used to format interval end points.
`intv_closers`	A length 2 character vector denoting the symbol to use for closing either left or right closed intervals.
`intv_openers`	A length 2 character vector denoting the symbol to use for opening either left or right closed intervals.
`intv_sep`	A length 1 character vector used to separate the start and end points.
`inf_label`	Label to use for intervals that include infinity. If left `NULL` the Unicode infinity symbol is used.

Value

A factor of discrete bins (intervals of start/end pairs).

Examples

library(cheapr)

# `as_discrete()` is very similar to `cut()`
# but more flexible as it allows you to supply
# formatting functions and symbols for the discrete bins

# Here is an example of how to use the formatting functions to
# categorise age groups nicely

ages <- 1:100

age_group <- function(x, breaks){
  age_groups <- as_discrete(
    x,
    breaks = breaks,
    intv_sep = "-",
    intv_end_fun = function(x) x - 1,
    intv_openers = c("", ""),
    intv_closers = c("", ""),
    include_oob = TRUE,
    ordered = TRUE
  )

  # Below is just renaming the last age group

  lvls <- levels(age_groups)
  n_lvls <- length(lvls)
  max_ages <- paste0(max(breaks), "+")
  attr(age_groups, "levels") <- c(lvls[-n_lvls], max_ages)
  age_groups
}

age_group(ages, seq(0, 80, 20))
age_group(ages, seq(0, 25, 5))
age_group(ages, 5)

# To closely replicate `cut()` with `as_discrete()` we can use the following

cheapr_cut <- function(x, breaks, right = TRUE,
                       include.lowest = FALSE,
                       ordered.result = FALSE){
  if (length(breaks) == 1){
    breaks <- get_breaks(x, breaks, pretty = FALSE,
                         expand_min = FALSE, expand_max = FALSE)
    adj <- diff(range(breaks)) * 0.001
    breaks[1] <- breaks[1] - adj
    breaks[length(breaks)] <- breaks[length(breaks)] + adj
  }
  as_discrete(x, breaks, left_closed = !right,
              include_endpoint = include.lowest,
              ordered = ordered.result,
              intv_start_fun = function(x) formatC(x, digits = 3, width = 1),
              intv_end_fun = function(x) formatC(x, digits = 3, width = 1))
}

x <- rnorm(100)
cheapr_cut(x, 10)
identical(cut(x, 10), cheapr_cut(x, 10))

cheapr documentation built on April 4, 2025, 4:25 a.m.