shape: Describe the structure of a source

In cohortBuilder: Data Source Agnostic Filtering Tools

Describe the structure of a source

Description

'shape()' is an S3 generic that summarizes a source for programmatic or LLM-based inspection. Called with only a 'source', it returns a structured list 'list(datasets, filters)' where 'datasets' maps each dataset name to its description text and 'filters' is keyed by filter id (each entry describing the filter's 'dataset', 'type', 'description', 'variables', and 'domain').

Usage

shape(source, ...)

## Default S3 method:
shape(source, field, subfield, ...)

## S3 method for class 'tblist'
shape(source, field, subfield, domains = TRUE, ...)

Arguments

source	A 'Source' object.
...	Extra arguments passed to methods.
field	Optional dataset (or description) name to look up.
subfield	Optional variable name within 'field' to look up.
domains	When 'TRUE' (default), each filter entry includes a 'domain' field (its set of valid values). Set to 'FALSE' to omit domains, e.g. when only descriptive metadata is needed and computing domains would be wasteful.

Details

Called with a 'field' (and optional 'subfield'), it instead performs a description-text lookup, returning the description stored for that dataset/variable. This form is used internally by the Cohort 'show_help()' method.

Value

Either a 'list(datasets, filters)' metadata structure or, when 'field' is supplied, the description text for the requested entry.

See Also

[describe()], [autofilter()]

cohortBuilder documentation built on July 3, 2026, 9:07 a.m.