wcmd: Winsteps Command File
In talbano/rwinsteps: Running Winsteps in R

Description Usage Arguments Details Value Author(s) See Also Examples

wcmd creates a Winsteps command file object. as.wcmd converts a list to an object of class “wcmd”. read.wcmd and write.wcmd read and write command files to and from text files.

wcmd(title = "R2Winsteps Run", data, item1, ni, name1,
  namelen = item1 - name1, codes = 0:1, csv = "y", hlines = "y",
  tfile = NULL, arglist = NULL, anchor = NULL, labels = NULL,
  extra = NULL)

as.wcmd(x)

read.wcmd(filename)

write.wcmd(cmd, filename)

`title`	a title for the Winsteps run, as a string
`data`	data set filename
`item1`	integer, fixed width column number of the first item
`ni`	integer, number of items
`name1`	integer, fixed width column number of the first character of the person name
`namelen`	integer, number of characters in person name, defaulting to the difference between `item1` and `name1`
`codes`	vector of response codes with default `c(0, 1)`
`csv`	character indicating how output files should be written, as csv (`"y"`, default) or as tab delimited (`"n"`). In order to read in and manipulate files using R2Winsteps, this must be `"y"`, and the Winsteps default which includes headers must not change (`hlines = "y"`)
`hlines`	character indicating whether or not to include header lines in output files, with default `"y"`, as required for using functions such as `read.ifile` and `read.pfile`
`tfile`	numeric vector of table numbers to be included in output
`arglist`	optional list of additional arguments to be appended to the command file, where the name of each list element will be pasted into a string with the value of the element, as `name = "value"`
`anchor`	optional matrix of item anchor values, with item sequences in column 1 and anchor values in column 2
`labels`	optional string vector of item labels, to be pasted after the `&END` statement in the command file
`extra`	optional vector of additional commands, similar to `arglist`, but where element names are ignored and each element is simply pasted into the command file separated by new lines
`x`	list of arguments to be converted into an object of class “wcmd”
`filename`	path to which the command file will be written, or from which it will be read
`cmd`	command file object to be written

The Winsteps command file specifies the structure of a persons by items matrix and includes all arguments necessary to run the model. Arguments without defaults, which are currently required in the “wcmd” class, are data, item1, ni, and name1. Winsteps accepts a variety of arguments and data specification options within the command file and only a selection of these are currently supported by the “wcmd” class, not including those necessary for polytomous models. Thus, for the greatest flexibility, the command file should be written by hand. For details, see the Winsteps manual.

Using write.wcmd, the command file is written to filename by separating all arguments and item labels with new lines. As all arguments are read and written as text strings, any argument with integer values such as codes may also be specified as a string, e.g., codes = "01".

The command file can also be used to facilitate reading and writing of data files in R. See read.wdat and write.wdat for details.

Returns a command file as a list of arguments

Anthony Albano tony.d.albano@gmail.com

winsteps

# Create
tempcmd <- tempfile()
cmd <- wcmd(title = "R2Winsteps Example", data = "example.dat",
  item1 = 1, ni = 15, name1 = 16, namelen = 5,
  labels = paste("i", 1:15, sep = ""), hlines = "Y")

# Write and read
write.wcmd(cmd, tempcmd)
cmd2 <- read.wcmd(tempcmd)