[R] Fwd: Documenting data sets with many variables

[Arne Henningsen]

On Tuesday 16 August 2005 14:49, Roger D. Peng wrote:
> Have you tried using 'promptData()' on the data frame and then
> just using the resulting documentation file?

Thank you, Roger, for bringing 'promptData()' to my mind. This is really a 
useful tool. However, in my special case my aim is to reduce the extent and 
increase the comprehensibility of the documentation rather than to reduce my 
effort to write the documentation. 

Any further hints are welcome!

Thanks,
Arne

> -roger
>
> Arne Henningsen wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > since nobody answered to my first message, I try to explain my problem
> > more clearly and more general this time:
> >
> > I have a data set in my R package "micEcon", which has many variables
> > (82). Therefore, I would like to avoid to describe all variables in the
> > "\format" section of the documentation (.Rd file). However, doing this
> > lets "R CMD check" complain about "data codoc mismatches" (details see
> > below). Is there a way to avoid the description of all variables without
> > getting a complaint from "R CMD check"?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Arne
> >
> >
> > ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
> >
> > Subject: Documenting data sets with many variables
> > Date: Friday 05 August 2005 14:03
> > From: Arne Henningsen <ahenningsen at email.uni-kiel.de>
> > To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I extended the data set "Blanciforti86" that is included in my R package
> > "micEcon". For instance, I added consumer prices, annual consumption
> > expenditures and expenditure shares of eleven aggregate commodity groups.
> > The corresponding variables in the data frame are called "pAgg1",
> > "pAgg2", ..., "pAgg11", "xAgg1", "xAgg2", ..., "xAgg11", "wAgg1",
> > "wAgg2", ..., "wAgg11". To avoid to describe all 33 items in the
> > "\format" section of the documentation (.Rd file) I wrote something like
> >
> > \format{
> >    This data frame contains the following columns:
> >    \describe{
> >       [ . . . ]
> >       \item{xAggX}{Expenditure on the aggregate commodity group X
> >          (in Millions of US-Dollars).}
> >       \item{pAggX}{Price index for the aggregate commodity group X
> >          (1972 = 100).}
> >       \item{wAggX}{Expenditure share of the aggregate commodity group X.}
> >       [ . . . ]
> >    }
> > }
> >
> > and explained the 11 aggregate commodity groups only once in a different
> > section (1=food, 2=clothing, ... ). However, "R CMD check" now complains
> > about "data codoc mismatches", e.g.
> >   Code: [...] pAgg1pAgg2 pAgg3  [...]
> >   Docs: [...] pAggX [...]
> >
> > Is there a way to avoid the description of all 33 items without getting a
> > complaint from "R CMD check"?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Arne
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Arne Henningsen
Department of Agricultural Economics
University of Kiel
Olshausenstr. 40
D-24098 Kiel (Germany)
Tel: +49-431-880 4445
Fax: +49-431-880 1397
ahenningsen at agric-econ.uni-kiel.de
http://www.uni-kiel.de/agrarpol/ahenningsen/