variable_definition_table: Definition of variables table
In jomuller/vartors: Transform Definition of Variables to R Scripts

Description See Also

The definition of variables table is a way to describe each variable from a database in a table where each line represent a variable, and each column one of its characteristic. The idea is to be explicit about each variable by describing these characteristics :

varlabel: An explicit name of the variable, but short enough to be displayed on figures and tables. Example : Date of birth or Creatinine Clearance
description: An explicit description of the variable, if the varlabel is not explicit enough. It helps the statistician to understand the meaning of the variable. Example : The Creatinine Clearance measured at the entry of the patient in the hospital
comment: An commentary to help the statistician. Example : This quantitative variable can't have value superior to 20.
unit: The unit of the variable, when applicable. For dates, put the format like in R. Example : for the Creatinine Clearance, ml/min, for the Date of birth, %d%m%Y
flevel: A level of a factor or ordered variable. Each level must be placed in a separated column. Then there are as much flevel as levels of the variable
flabel: A label of a factor or ordered variable. Each level must be placed in a separated column. Then there are as much flevel as levels of the variable
type: Class of the variable. Could be numeric, integer, factor, ordered, date, character or not_used
rname: The name of the variable in R. If not given, the varlabel will be used and transformed to a compatible name

To create a definition of variables table skeleton from a existing data.frame, use the descvars_skeleton function. To read a definition of variables table from a data.frame to a DatabaseDef object, use the import_vardef. Variable definition table could be used directly as a data.frame by create_script. A built-in example of a complete definition of variables table is the variables_description_bad_database that describes the bad_database.