make_synthetic_column: Generate One Synthetic Column From a Spec

In rmoriebricklayer: Reproducible Data Capsules with Provenance and Fallback

Generate One Synthetic Column From a Spec

Description

Builds a single synthetic data column according to a column spec drawn from a provenance synthetic recipe. Supported types are "sample" (categorical, optionally weighted), "bernoulli" (two-label draw with optional per-row base rate), "poisson" (counts with a floor), "id_pattern" (templated IDs, optionally per-year sequenced), and "sequence" (a running integer sequence).

Usage

make_synthetic_column(spec, n, ctx = list(), base_p = NULL)

Arguments

spec	A list describing the column; recognised fields depend on spec$type (e.g. values, weights, p, p_with_baserate, labels, lambda, min, pattern, year_col, from).
n	Number of values to generate.
ctx	Named list of already-generated columns, letting later columns (such as id_pattern with a year_col) reference earlier ones. Defaults to an empty list.
base_p	Optional numeric vector of per-row latent propensities used by the "bernoulli" type to add row-level variation.

Value

A vector of length n for the requested column type. Errors on an unknown type.

Examples

set.seed(1)
# "sample": categorical draw, optionally weighted.
make_synthetic_column(list(type = "sample", values = list("a", "b"),
                           weights = list(0.7, 0.3)), 5)

# "bernoulli": two-label draw at probability p.
make_synthetic_column(list(type = "bernoulli", p = 0.5,
                           labels = list("Yes", "No")), 5)

# "poisson": counts with a floor via `min`.
make_synthetic_column(list(type = "poisson", lambda = 3, min = 1), 5)

# "id_pattern": templated IDs (the {seq:05d} token is zero-padded).
make_synthetic_column(list(type = "id_pattern",
                           pattern = "case-{seq:05d}"), 3)

# "sequence": a running integer sequence from `from`.
make_synthetic_column(list(type = "sequence", from = 100), 4)

# An unknown type errors.
try(make_synthetic_column(list(type = "nope"), 3))

rmoriebricklayer documentation built on Aug. 5, 2026, 9:08 a.m.