[R] For Hadley Wickham: Need for a small fix in haven::read_spss

[Dimitri Liakhovitski]

Thank you, Hadley. Yes, you are right - next time I'll email you directly.

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 10:01 AM, Hadley Wickham <h.wickham at gmail.com> wrote:
> (FWIW this would've been better send to me directly or filed on
> github, rather than sent to R-help)
>
> I think this is more of a problem with the way that you're accessing
> the info, than the design of the underlying structure. I'd do
> something like this:
>
> attr_default <- function(x, which, default) {
>   val <- attr(x, which)
>   if (is.null(val)) default else val
> }
>
> sapply(spss1, attr_default, "label", NA_character_)
>
> (code untested, but you get the idea)
>
> Hadley
>
> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 8:56 AM, Dimitri Liakhovitski
> <dimitri.liakhovitski at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hadley,
>>
>> you've added function labelled to haven, which is great. However, when
>> it so happens that in SPSS a variable has no long label, your code
>> considers it to be NULL rather than an NA. NULL is correct, but NA
>> would probably be better.
>>
>> For example, I've read in an SPSS file:
>>
>> library(haven)
>> spss1 <- read_spss("SPSS_Example.sav")
>>
>> varnames <- names(spss1)
>> mylabels <- unlist(lapply(spss1, attr, "label"))
>>
>> length(varnames)
>> [1] 64
>>
>> length(mylabels)
>> [1] 62
>>
>>
>> Because in this particular dataset there were 2 variables without
>> either variable labels or data labels.
>> When I run lapply(spss1, attr, "label") I see under those 2 variables
>> "NULL" - which is true and valid.
>> However,  would it be possible to have instead of NULL an NA? This way
>> the length of varnames and mylables would the same and one could put
>> them side by side (e.g., in one data frame)?
>>
>>
>> Thanks a lot!
>>
>> --
>> Dimitri Liakhovitski
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> http://had.co.nz/



-- 
Dimitri Liakhovitski