reformat_age: Reformat Age Group Labels

In poputils: Demographic Analysis and Data Manipulation

Reformat Age Group Labels

Description

Convert age group labels to one of three formats:

• Single-year age groups, eg "0", "1", ..., "99", "100+".

• Life table age groups, eg "0", ⁠"1-4", ⁠"5-9"⁠, ..., ⁠"95-99"⁠, ⁠"100+"'.

• Five-year age groups, eg "0-4", "5-9", ..., "95-99", "100+".

By default reformat_age() returns a factor that includes all intermediate age groups. See below for examples.

Usage

reformat_age(x, factor = TRUE)

Arguments

x	A vector.
factor	Whether the return value should be a factor.

Details

reformat_age() applies the following algorithm:

1. Tidy and translate text, eg convert "20 to 24 years" to "20-24", convert "infant" to "0", or convert "100 or more" to "100+".

2. Check whether the resulting labels could have been produced by age_labels(). If not, throw an error.

3. If factor is TRUE (the default), then return a factor. The levels of this factor include all intermediate age groups. Otherwise return a character vector.

When x consists entirely of numbers, reformat_age() also checks for two special cases:

• If every element of x is a multiple of 5, and if max(x) >= 50, then x is assumed to describe 5-year age groups

• If every element of x is 0, 1, or a multiple of 5, with max(x) >= 50, then x is assumed to describe life table age groups.

Value

If factor is TRUE, then reformat_age() returns a factor; otherwise it returns a character vector.

See Also

age_labels(), reformat_sex()

Examples

reformat_age(c("80 to 84", "90 or more", "85 to 89"))

## factor contains intermediate level missing from 'x'
reformat_age(c("80 to 84", "90 or more"))

## non-factor
reformat_age(c("80 to 84", "90 or more"),
          factor = FALSE)

## single
reformat_age(c("80", "90plus"))

## life table
reformat_age(c("0",
            "30-34",
            "10--14",
            "1-4 years"))

poputils documentation built on Aug. 8, 2025, 6:21 p.m.