I have imported datasets whose column names are cryptic, misleading, overly long, and/or embedded with punctuation. Renaming them was the only rational choice for transforming them into something useful.
Unfortunately, this breaks the connections to external documents that refer to them by their original names.
I have seen some Stackexchange posts about creating aliases for column names, but these seem complicated and not widely adopted.
Are there any best practices that address this?
I would use the popular janitor package to clean the names, and maintain a data frame of aliases. You can use the aliases to associate the new names with the old. For example, if you have a data frame of model coefficients, you can join the alias data frame to this to populate the original names.
library(janitor)
#>
#> Attaching package: 'janitor'
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
#>
#> chisq.test, fisher.test
library(tidyverse)
new_iris <- as_tibble(iris) %>% clean_names()
alias <- tibble(old_name = names(iris), name = names(new_iris))
print(alias)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 2
#> old_name name
#> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Sepal.Length sepal_length
#> 2 Sepal.Width sepal_width
#> 3 Petal.Length petal_length
#> 4 Petal.Width petal_width
#> 5 Species species
Created on 2022-02-18 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)
Thanks! clean_names() does nice things for unmanageable column names. I had hoped to get some insight into managing metadata specifically for imported datasets. I have found some discussion for example with how to do this with attr's using a number of different packages, however, not so much as to what these attributes should include.
You can definitely make an S3 class and include other attributes. This is not my strength...I tend to prefer simpler solutions and am slightly allergic to anything OOP.
This seems to work, although I'm not sure why my new class got disconnected from the print method for tibble. Seems to be using a generic print method instead.
library(tidyverse)
library(janitor)
#>
#> Attaching package: 'janitor'
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
#>
#> chisq.test, fisher.test
construct_alias_tib <- function(df0) {
df <- df0 %>% as_tibble() %>% clean_names()
structure(
df,
class = "alias_tib",
old_names = names(df0)
)
}
new_iris <- construct_alias_tib(iris)
print(new_iris)
#> $sepal_length
#> [1] 5.1 4.9 4.7 4.6 5.0 5.4 4.6 5.0 4.4 4.9 5.4 4.8 4.8 4.3 5.8 5.7 5.4 5.1
#> [19] 5.7 5.1 5.4 5.1 4.6 5.1 4.8 5.0 5.0 5.2 5.2 4.7 4.8 5.4 5.2 5.5 4.9 5.0
#> [37] 5.5 4.9 4.4 5.1 5.0 4.5 4.4 5.0 5.1 4.8 5.1 4.6 5.3 5.0 7.0 6.4 6.9 5.5
#> [55] 6.5 5.7 6.3 4.9 6.6 5.2 5.0 5.9 6.0 6.1 5.6 6.7 5.6 5.8 6.2 5.6 5.9 6.1
#> [73] 6.3 6.1 6.4 6.6 6.8 6.7 6.0 5.7 5.5 5.5 5.8 6.0 5.4 6.0 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.5
#> [91] 5.5 6.1 5.8 5.0 5.6 5.7 5.7 6.2 5.1 5.7 6.3 5.8 7.1 6.3 6.5 7.6 4.9 7.3
#> [109] 6.7 7.2 6.5 6.4 6.8 5.7 5.8 6.4 6.5 7.7 7.7 6.0 6.9 5.6 7.7 6.3 6.7 7.2
#> [127] 6.2 6.1 6.4 7.2 7.4 7.9 6.4 6.3 6.1 7.7 6.3 6.4 6.0 6.9 6.7 6.9 5.8 6.8
#> [145] 6.7 6.7 6.3 6.5 6.2 5.9
#>
#> $sepal_width
#> [1] 3.5 3.0 3.2 3.1 3.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 2.9 3.1 3.7 3.4 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.4 3.9 3.5
#> [19] 3.8 3.8 3.4 3.7 3.6 3.3 3.4 3.0 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.2 3.1 3.4 4.1 4.2 3.1 3.2
#> [37] 3.5 3.6 3.0 3.4 3.5 2.3 3.2 3.5 3.8 3.0 3.8 3.2 3.7 3.3 3.2 3.2 3.1 2.3
#> [55] 2.8 2.8 3.3 2.4 2.9 2.7 2.0 3.0 2.2 2.9 2.9 3.1 3.0 2.7 2.2 2.5 3.2 2.8
#> [73] 2.5 2.8 2.9 3.0 2.8 3.0 2.9 2.6 2.4 2.4 2.7 2.7 3.0 3.4 3.1 2.3 3.0 2.5
#> [91] 2.6 3.0 2.6 2.3 2.7 3.0 2.9 2.9 2.5 2.8 3.3 2.7 3.0 2.9 3.0 3.0 2.5 2.9
#> [109] 2.5 3.6 3.2 2.7 3.0 2.5 2.8 3.2 3.0 3.8 2.6 2.2 3.2 2.8 2.8 2.7 3.3 3.2
#> [127] 2.8 3.0 2.8 3.0 2.8 3.8 2.8 2.8 2.6 3.0 3.4 3.1 3.0 3.1 3.1 3.1 2.7 3.2
#> [145] 3.3 3.0 2.5 3.0 3.4 3.0
#>
#> $petal_length
#> [1] 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.1 1.2 1.5 1.3 1.4
#> [19] 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.7 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.2
#> [37] 1.3 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.6 1.9 1.4 1.6 1.4 1.5 1.4 4.7 4.5 4.9 4.0
#> [55] 4.6 4.5 4.7 3.3 4.6 3.9 3.5 4.2 4.0 4.7 3.6 4.4 4.5 4.1 4.5 3.9 4.8 4.0
#> [73] 4.9 4.7 4.3 4.4 4.8 5.0 4.5 3.5 3.8 3.7 3.9 5.1 4.5 4.5 4.7 4.4 4.1 4.0
#> [91] 4.4 4.6 4.0 3.3 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.3 3.0 4.1 6.0 5.1 5.9 5.6 5.8 6.6 4.5 6.3
#> [109] 5.8 6.1 5.1 5.3 5.5 5.0 5.1 5.3 5.5 6.7 6.9 5.0 5.7 4.9 6.7 4.9 5.7 6.0
#> [127] 4.8 4.9 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.4 5.6 5.1 5.6 6.1 5.6 5.5 4.8 5.4 5.6 5.1 5.1 5.9
#> [145] 5.7 5.2 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.1
#>
#> $petal_width
#> [1] 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.3
#> [19] 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2
#> [37] 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.3
#> [55] 1.5 1.3 1.6 1.0 1.3 1.4 1.0 1.5 1.0 1.4 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.0 1.5 1.1 1.8 1.3
#> [73] 1.5 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.4 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.1 1.0 1.2 1.6 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.3 1.3
#> [91] 1.2 1.4 1.2 1.0 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.3 2.5 1.9 2.1 1.8 2.2 2.1 1.7 1.8
#> [109] 1.8 2.5 2.0 1.9 2.1 2.0 2.4 2.3 1.8 2.2 2.3 1.5 2.3 2.0 2.0 1.8 2.1 1.8
#> [127] 1.8 1.8 2.1 1.6 1.9 2.0 2.2 1.5 1.4 2.3 2.4 1.8 1.8 2.1 2.4 2.3 1.9 2.3
#> [145] 2.5 2.3 1.9 2.0 2.3 1.8
#>
#> $species
#> [1] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [7] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [13] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [19] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [25] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [31] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [37] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [43] setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa setosa
#> [49] setosa setosa versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [55] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [61] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [67] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [73] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [79] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [85] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [91] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor
#> [97] versicolor versicolor versicolor versicolor virginica virginica
#> [103] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [109] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [115] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [121] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [127] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [133] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [139] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> [145] virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica virginica
#> Levels: setosa versicolor virginica
#>
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "alias_tib"
#> attr(,"row.names")
#> [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
#> [19] 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
#> [37] 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
#> [55] 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
#> [73] 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
#> [91] 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108
#> [109] 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126
#> [127] 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144
#> [145] 145 146 147 148 149 150
#> attr(,"old_names")
#> [1] "Sepal.Length" "Sepal.Width" "Petal.Length" "Petal.Width" "Species"
print(names(new_iris))
#> [1] "sepal_length" "sepal_width" "petal_length" "petal_width" "species"
print(attr(new_iris, "old_names"))
#> [1] "Sepal.Length" "Sepal.Width" "Petal.Length" "Petal.Width" "Species"
Created on 2022-02-18 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)
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