para_read_data: Read parasite data

In parasiteR: A Theorical-Practical Approach to Parasitological Data Analysis

Read parasite data

Description

Load data from a .CSV file

Usage

para_read_data(file_name, verbose = FALSE)

Arguments

file_name	Name of .CSV table file.
verbose	A logical value indicating if progress messages should be given.

Details

This package includes a specific function to import tables (.CSV files) into the R environment. Each row in the table should correspond to an individual host that was analyzed, while the columns may contain both quantitative and qualitative variables. Columns may represent two principal categories of variables:

• "Host-related variables": Encompassing metadata such as the site of specimen collection, host species, morphophysiological traits, applied experimental treatments, and other relevant descriptors.

• "Parasite-related variables": Denoting parasite abundance per host, typically structured across multiple columns corresponding to the finest available taxonomic resolution (e.g., species, genus, family, order).

Parasite abundance values must be encoded as non-negative integers. It is critical to distinguish between the following:

• 0: Represents a confirmed absence of the parasite in the host specimen.

• NA: Indicates that parasite detection or quantification was not feasible due to methodological or technical limitations.

Value

The function returns:

dataset	A table that can be used as input for other parasiteR functions.
factors_v	A list of columns with factor values.
num_v	A list of columns with numeric values.
summ	A summary of the loaded data. Check summary() function

Author(s)

Juan Manuel Cabrera, Exequiel Furlan and Elisa Helman

parasiteR documentation built on May 13, 2026, 9:08 a.m.