[R] question about ... questions/ code

[R. Michael Weylandt]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but it doesn't sound like this is
much of an R question at all: what is "the code book"? If it's an
actual (dead tree) book, I don't think there's much you can do in R to
automate identifications; if it's an online API, you *might* be able
to rig a matching algorithm.

Still, hopefully if you say a little more about your data source, it
might be possible to help -- it doesn't sound like a pleasant
situation at all...

Michael

Here's a (very untested) shot at matching known levels to columns of
levels, but it's assuming there's going to be a perfect match, and
that your book encodes them the same way as the data source etc.

LEVS <- lapply(RB09, levels)
thingToMatch = c("A", "b", "c")
which(sapply(LEVS, function(x,y) all(match(x,y, nomatch = 0L) > 0L),
thingToMatch))


On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Nicole Marie Ford <nmford at uwm.edu> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a dataset which I am calling RB09.
>
> I am trying to match the questions in the code book with variable codes.
>
> It is not very intuitive.
>
> example:
>
>  names(RB09)
>  [1] "ea1"        "eaf1"       "eaf1a"      "eaf2"       "eaf2_7"
>  [6] "eaf3"       "eafimpun"   "eafunpun"   "evimpmar"   "evfutpro"
>  [11] "ecjoh"      "eaf4a"      "eaf5"       "eaf6a"      "eaf6b"
>  [16] "eaf6c"      "eaf6d"      "eaf6e"      "eaf7a"      "eaf7b"
>
> (there are over 800 of these)
>
> questions looks like this:
>
> B16a. Most people in this country
>        Trusts
>        Neutral
>        Does not trust
> however, there is no variable B16a.  there is one that is "ssb16a" but as you can see:
>
>> levels(RB09$ss16a)
> [1] "yes"       "no"        "dont know" "na"        "dk"
>
> The levels are not the same.  SO I don't think this is correctly matched.
>
> Is there an easy way to find out what -for example- which question "eaf6c"
> goes to?
>
> Also, I know there is a way to search key words and find the variables which match.  I have done this before and can't find the code.
>
> Any direction would help.  Thanks.
>
> ~Nicole
>
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