First PX-file

In pxmake: Make PX-Files in R

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)

To create your first PX-file with pxmake, you can either start with an existing PX-file, or use a data set.

How to create a PX-file from a data set

All workflows in pxmake, starts the same way: by using the px() to create a px object. Here we are using the built in dataset population_gl.

library(pxmake)

population_gl |>
  head(10) |>
  print()

To create the px object, simply pass the data set to the px() function.

x <- px(population_gl)

x is now a px object. The word object just means that the PX-file is stored in a specific format that all functions in the pxmake package uses.

Use px_save() to save the px object as a PX-file.

px_save(x, "population_gl.px")

Since we provided no metadata, px() added a minimal set of metadata, which is necessary for creating a valid PX-file.

The resulting PX-file can be seen below.

readLines('population_gl.px') |> cat(sep = '\n')

How to create a PX-file from a PX-file

If you already have a PX-file, that you want to manipulate using pxmake, simple pass the path of the file, to the px() function.

x2 <- px("population_gl.px")

Just as with the dataset, x2 is now a px object and can be saved or modified using the other functions in pxmake.

Modifying a px object

The real fun starts when you start modifying the px object, using one of pxmake many built in functions.

In general, each px keyword has a corresponding function in pxmake. For example, to change the title of the PX-file, you can use the px_title() function.

x3 <- px_title(x, "Population in Greenland")

The px_title() function returns a new px object, with the title changed. The original px object is not modified.

x3 |>
  px_codepage("UTF-8") |> # Change file encoding  
  px_matrix("pop") |>
  px_contact("Johan Ejstrud") |>
  px_subject_code("GL") |>
  px_subject_area("Greenland") |>
  px_timeval("year") |>
  px_contents("Population in Greenland") |>
  px_units("People") |>
  px_note("See information about data: ?population_gl") |>
  px_last_updated(format(Sys.time(), "%Y%m%d %H:%M")) |>
  px_stub(c("age", "gender")) |> # Change order of STUB variables
  px_save("population_gl_modified.px")

The resulting PX-file can be seen below.

readLines('population_gl_modified.px') |> cat(sep = '\n')

Advanced use

See the other vignettes for more advanced use cases: - vignette("languages") - vignette("micro-files")

pxmake documentation built on April 11, 2025, 6:06 p.m.