f_summary: Summarize a Data Frame with Grouping Variables

In rfriend: Provides Batch Functions and Visualisation for Basic Statistical Procedures

Summarize a Data Frame with Grouping Variables

Description

Computes summary statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, median, etc.) for a specified column ("character string") in a data frame, grouped by one or more grouping variables in that data frame ("character strings"). Summary parameters can be customized and the results can be exported to an 'Excel' file.

Usage

f_summary(
  data,
  data.column,
  ...,
  show_n = TRUE,
  show_mean = TRUE,
  show_sd = TRUE,
  show_se = TRUE,
  show_min = TRUE,
  show_max = TRUE,
  show_median = TRUE,
  show_Q1 = TRUE,
  show_Q3 = TRUE,
  digits = 2,
  export_to_excel = FALSE,
  close_generated_files = FALSE,
  open_generated_files = TRUE,
  output_file = NULL,
  output_dir = NULL,
  save_in_wdir = FALSE,
  open_excel = TRUE,
  check_input = TRUE,
  eval_input = FALSE,
  digits_excel = NULL,
  detect_int_col = TRUE
)

Arguments

data	A 'data.frame', 'data.table' or 'tibble', i.e. input data to be summarized.
data.column	A character string, vector or list with characters. The name of the column(s) in data for which summary statistics will be calculated.
...	One or more character strings specifying the grouping variables in data. At least one grouping variable must be provided.
show_n	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results n will be included in the output.
show_mean	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results mean will be included in the output.
show_sd	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results sd will be included in the output.
show_se	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results se will be included in the output.
show_min	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results min will be included in the output.
show_max	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results max will be included in the output.
show_median	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results median will be included in the output.
show_Q1	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results Q1 will be included in the output.
show_Q3	Logical. If TRUE, the summary results Q3 will be included in the output.
digits	Integer. Round to the number of digits specified. If digits = NULL no rounding is applied (default is digits = 2). Note that this rounding is independent of the rounding in the exported excel file.
export_to_excel	Logical. If TRUE, the (unrounded values) summary results will be exported to an 'Excel' file. Default is FALSE.
close_generated_files	Logical. If TRUE, closes open 'Excel' files. This to be able to save the newly generated file. Default is FALSE.
open_generated_files	Logical. If TRUE, Opens the generated 'Excel' files. This to directly view the results after creation. Files are stored in tempdir(). Default is TRUE.
output_file	Character string specifying the name of the output file. Default is "dataname_summary.xlsx".
output_dir	Character string specifying the name of the directory of the output file. Default is tempdir(). If the output_file already contains a directory name output_dir can be omitted, if used it overwrites the dir specified in output_file.
save_in_wdir	Logical. If TRUE, saves the file in the working directory Default is FALSE, to avoid unintended changes to the global environment. If the output_dir is specified save_in_wdir is overwritten with output_dir.
open_excel	Logical. If TRUE and export_to_excel is also TRUE, the generated 'Excel' file will be opened automatically. Default is TRUE.
check_input	If TRUE, checks the input and stops the function if the input is incorrect (default is TRUE).
eval_input	Logical. If TRUE, the function evaluates the third function argument. This should be a character vector with the group by columns. Default is FALSE, which allows group by columns to be written without quotes.
digits_excel	Integer. Round cells in the excel file to the number of digits specified. If digits_excel = NULL no rounding is applied (default is digits_excel = NULL). Note to preserve formatting numbers will be stored as text.
detect_int_col	Logical. If TRUE, columns in a data.frame containing only integers will be displayed without decimal digits. Columns containing a mix of integers and decimal values will display all values with the specified number of digits. If FALSE, each individual cell is evaluated: integer values are displayed without digits, and numbers containing digits with the specified number of digits. Default is TRUE.

Details

The function computes the following summary statistics for the specified column:

• n: number of observations

• mean: mean

• sd: standard deviation

• se: standard error of the mean

• min: minimum value

• max: maximum value

• median: median

• Q1: first quartile

• Q3: third quartile

Each of these summary statistics can be removed by setting e.g. show_n = FALSE, The results are grouped by the specified grouping variables and returned as a data frame. If export_to_excel is set to TRUE, the results are saved as an 'Excel' file in the working directory with a dynamically generated filename.

Value

A data frame containing the computed summary statistics, grouped by the specified variables. This data frame can be automatically saved as an 'Excel' file using export_to_excel = TRUE.

Author(s)

Sander H. van Delden [e-mail]

Examples

# Example usage:
# Create a summary of mtcars for data column hp grouped by cyl and gear,
# and remove Q1 and Q3 from the output.
# Note that variable can be written as "hp" or as hp. Only data.frame must be data (no quotes)
summary_mtcars <- f_summary(mtcars, "hp", "cyl", "gear", show_Q1 = FALSE, show_Q3 = FALSE)
print(summary_mtcars)

# Create a summary for iris
summary_iris <- f_summary(iris, Sepal.Length, Species)

# Print the a table with column width of 10 characters and table length of 70 characters
print(summary_iris, col_width =  10, table_width = 70)

rfriend documentation built on Aug. 8, 2025, 7:33 p.m.