Create a composite variable.

Create a composite variable out of two variables.

Usage

composeVar(GADSdat, sourceVars, primarySourceVar, newVar, checkVarName = TRUE)

Arguments

GADSdat

GADSdat or all_GADSdat object imported via eatGADS.

sourceVars

Character vector of length two containing the variable names which represent the sources of information.

primarySourceVar

Character vector containing a single variable name. Which of the sourceVars should be preferred?

newVar

Character vector containing the name of the new composite variable.

checkVarName

Logical. Should newVar be checked by checkVarNames?

Value

The modified GADSdat.

Details

A common use case for creating a composite variable is if there are multiple sources for the same information. For example, a child and the parents are asked about the child's native language. In such cases a composite variable contains information from both variables, meaning that one source is preferred and the other source is used to substitute missing values.

Examples

# example data
dat <- data.frame(ID = 1:4,
nat_lang_child = c("Engl", "Ger", "missing", "missing"),
nat_lang_father = c("Engl", "Engl", "Ger", "missing"),
stringsAsFactors = TRUE)
gads <- import_DF(dat)
changeMissings(gads, "nat_lang_child", value = 3, missings = "miss")
#> $dat
#>   ID nat_lang_child nat_lang_father
#> 1  1              1               1
#> 2  2              2               1
#> 3  3              3               2
#> 4  4              3               3
#> 
#> $labels
#>           varName varLabel format display_width labeled value valLabel missings
#> 1              ID     <NA>   <NA>            NA      no    NA     <NA>     <NA>
#> 2  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl    valid
#> 3  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger    valid
#> 4  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing     miss
#> 5 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl    valid
#> 6 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger    valid
#> 7 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing    valid
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "GADSdat" "list"   
changeMissings(gads, "nat_lang_father", value = 3, missings = "miss")
#> $dat
#>   ID nat_lang_child nat_lang_father
#> 1  1              1               1
#> 2  2              2               1
#> 3  3              3               2
#> 4  4              3               3
#> 
#> $labels
#>           varName varLabel format display_width labeled value valLabel missings
#> 1              ID     <NA>   <NA>            NA      no    NA     <NA>     <NA>
#> 2  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl    valid
#> 3  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger    valid
#> 4  nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing    valid
#> 5 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl    valid
#> 6 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger    valid
#> 7 nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing     miss
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "GADSdat" "list"   

# compose variable
composeVar(gads, sourceVars = c("nat_lang_child", "nat_lang_father"),
           primarySourceVar = "nat_lang_child", newVar = "nat_lang_comp")
#> $dat
#>   ID nat_lang_comp nat_lang_child nat_lang_father
#> 1  1             1              1               1
#> 2  2             2              2               1
#> 3  3             3              3               2
#> 4  4             3              3               3
#> 
#> $labels
#>            varName varLabel format display_width labeled value valLabel
#> 1               ID     <NA>   <NA>            NA      no    NA     <NA>
#> 8    nat_lang_comp     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl
#> 9    nat_lang_comp     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger
#> 10   nat_lang_comp     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing
#> 2   nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl
#> 3   nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger
#> 4   nat_lang_child     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing
#> 5  nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     1     Engl
#> 6  nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     2      Ger
#> 7  nat_lang_father     <NA>   <NA>            NA     yes     3  missing
#>    missings
#> 1      <NA>
#> 8     valid
#> 9     valid
#> 10    valid
#> 2     valid
#> 3     valid
#> 4     valid
#> 5     valid
#> 6     valid
#> 7     valid
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "GADSdat" "list"