xlff_to_output: Read and wrangle excel-FastField and output dataframes or...
In forestgeo/fgeo.misc: Miscellaneous Functions

Description Usage Arguments Details Value Acknowledgment Author(s) Examples

These functions read and wrangle excel workbooks produced by the FastField app and output a list of dataframes (xlff_to_list()), .csv files (xlff_to_csv()) or .xlsx files (xlff_to_xl()). Each dataframe or file combines all spreadsheets from a single excel workbook in the input directory. If the input directory has multiple workbooks, the output will be multiple dataframes, multiple .csv files, or multiple .excel files.

xlff_to_csv(dir_in, dir_out = "./", first_census = FALSE)

xlff_to_xl(dir_in, dir_out = "./", first_census = FALSE)

xlff_to_list(dir_in, first_census = FALSE, root_columns = NULL)

`dir_in`	String giving the directory containing the excel workbooks to read from.
`dir_out`	String giving the directory where to write .csv files to.
`first_census`	Use `TRUE` if this is your first census. Use `FALSE` (default) if this is not your first census but a recensus.
`root_columns`	String. Lowercase name of column(s) in the root sheet ( e.g. c("date", "team")). This is useful when you data has non-standard columns.

This is a rigid function with a very specific goal: To process data from FastField forms. Specifically, this is what this function does:

Reads each spreadsheet from each workbook and map it to a dataframe.
Lowercases and links the names of each dataframe.
Adds any missing key-sheets:
- For first census: (1) "root", (2) "multi_stems", (3) "secondary_stems", and (4) "single_stems".
- For recensus: (1) "root", (2) "original_stems", (3) "new_secondary_stems", and (4) "recruits"
Dates the data by submission_id (date comes from the spreadsheet root).
Lowercases and links the names of each dataframe-variable.
Drops fake stems.
Output a common data structure of your choice.

xlff_to_csv() and xlff_to_xl() write a .csv or excel (.xlsx) file per workbook – combining all spreadsheets. xlff_to_list outputs a list where each dataframes combines all spreadsheeets of a workbook.

Sabrina Russo helped to make these functions useful with first censuses.
David Orwig helped to fix a debug.

Mauro Lepore and Jessica Shue.

library(fs)
library(readr)
library(readxl)

# NOT A FIRST CENSUS
# Path to the folder I want to read excel files from
dir_in <- dirname(misc_example("two_files/new_stem_1.xlsx"))
dir_in

# Files I want to read
dir(dir_in, pattern = "xlsx")

# Path to the folder I want to write .csv files to
dir_out <- tempdir()

# Output a csv file
xlff_to_csv(dir_in, dir_out)

# Confirm
path_file(dir_ls(dir_out, regexp = "new_stem.*csv$"))

# Also possible to output excel and a list of dataframe. See next section.

# FIRST CENSUS
dir_in <- dirname(misc_example("first_census/census.xlsx"))
# As a reminder you will get a warning of missing sheets
# Output list of dataframes (one per input workbook -- here only one)
lst <- xlff_to_list(dir_in, first_census = TRUE)
str(lst, give.attr = FALSE)

# Output excel
xlff_to_xl(dir_in, dir_out, first_census = TRUE)
# Read back
filename <- path(dir_out, "census.xlsx")
out <- read_excel(filename)
str(out, give.attr = FALSE)