Setting column attributes

What is the tidy method of setting column attributes in a tibble or data.frame? I'd like to do something like this in a pipe-friendly manner using a tidyverse function/routine.

attr(iris$Sepal.Length, "units") <- "cm"
attributes(iris$Sepal.Length)

In the simple case, like iris where all columns have the same units, I don't think it needs to be tidy

Iris <- iris
mostattributes(Iris) <- list(units = "cm")
Iris
#> [[1]]
#>   [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
#> 
#> [[2]]
#>   [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
#> 
#> [[3]]
#>   [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
#> 
#> [[4]]
#>   [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
#> 
#> [[5]]
#>   [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(,"units")
#> [1] "cm"

Created on 2020-02-21 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)

I do not have a generic method for attaching attributes to a data frame columns in a pipe friendly way, BUT if the goal was to set the units for some of the columns, the following could help:

library(units, quietly = TRUE)
#> udunits system database from /usr/local/share/udunits
library(dplyr, warn.conflicts = FALSE)

iris %>%
  as_tibble() %>% 
  mutate(Sepal.Length = set_units(Sepal.Length, cm))
#> # A tibble: 150 x 5
#>    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#>            [cm]       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl> <fct>  
#>  1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2 setosa 
#>  2          4.9         3            1.4         0.2 setosa 
#>  3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2 setosa 
#>  4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2 setosa 
#>  5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2 setosa 
#>  6          5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4 setosa 
#>  7          4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3 setosa 
#>  8          5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2 setosa 
#>  9          4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2 setosa 
#> 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1 setosa 
#> # … with 140 more rows

Created on 2020-02-22 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 21 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.