Change variable data class — change

View data class for each variable and call appropriate functions to change data class as needed.

Usage

change_class(dat, project, x = NULL, new_class = NULL, save = FALSE)

Arguments

dat: Main data frame over which to apply function. Table in FishSET database should contain the string `MainDataTable`.
project: Name of project.
x: A character string of variable(s) in dat that will be changed to new_class. One ore more variables may be included. Default set to NULL.
new_class: A character string of data classes that x should be changed to. Length of new_class should match the length of x unless all variables in x should be the same new_class. Defaults to NULL. Options are "numeric", "factor", "date", "character". Must be in quotes.
save: Logical. Should the data table be saved in the FishSET database, replacing the working data table in the database? Defaults to FALSE.

Value

Table with data class for each variable and the working data with modified data class as specified.

Details

Returns a table with data class for each variable in dat and changes variable classes. To view variable classes run the function with default settings, specifying only dat and project. If variable class should be changed, run the function again, specifying the variable(s) (x) to be changed and the new_class(es) (new_class). Set save to TRUE to save modified data table.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
#View table without changing class or saving
change_class(pollockMainDataTable, "myproject")

#Change class for a single variable and save data table to FishSET database
change_class(pollockMainDataTable, "myproject", x = "HAUL", new_class = 'numeric', save=TRUE)

#Change class for multiple variables and save data table to FishSET database
change_class(pollockMainDataTable, "myproject", x = c("HAUL","DISEMBARKED_PORT"),
 new_class = c('numeric', 'factor'), save=TRUE)
}