Specification of the 'tiny_labelled' class

In tinylabels: Lightweight Variable Labels

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

library(tinylabels)

Setting a variable label

x <- 1:4
variable_label(x) <- "A variable label"

Extracting and replacing parts of an object

If elements of a vector are extracted, the new vector retains label and class tiny_labelled.

x[1:2]
str(x)
x[1:2] <- 5:6
str(x)

Using double brackets removes label and class tiny_labelled, similar to how names are handled:

x[[1]]

It is still possible top keep variable label and class by setting keep_label = TRUE:

x[[1, keep_label = TRUE]]

Math, Ops, Summary, Complex

If a vector is modified (e.g., via mathematical operations), label and tiny_labelled class are removed.

str(exp(x))

str(x + 1)

str(min(x))

str(Re(x))

Coercion

Vectors of class tiny_labelled keep label and class if they are modified via as.character(), as.numeric(), etc.

as.character(x)

If keep_label = FALSE, label and class are removed.

as.character(x, keep_label = FALSE)

as() methods are always strict, i.e. label and class are removed:

as(x, "character")

Data-frame methods

It is possible to assign multiple labels to the columns of a data frame by passing a named list or a named vector of key-value pairs. Note that mixing different types of labels (e.g. character and expression labels) is only possible if the right-hand side is a list.

variable_label(npk) <- c(
  N = "Nitrogen"
  , P = "Phosphate"
)
variable_label(npk) <- list(
  yield = expression(bar(Yield))
)
variable_label(npk)

tinylabels documentation built on April 4, 2025, 2:02 a.m.