Metadata for a Data Frame

DESCRIPTION:

contents is a generic method for which contents.data.frame is currently the only method. contents.data.frame creates an object containing the following attributes of the variables from a data frame: names, labels (if any), units (if any), number of factor levels (if any), factor levels, class, storage mode, and number of NAs. print.contents.data.frame will print the results, with options for sorting the variables. html.contents.data.frame creates HTML code for displaying the results. This code has hyperlinks so that if the user clicks on the number of levels the browser jumps to the correct part of a table of factor levels for all the factor variables.

contents.list prints a directory of datasets when imported more than one SAS dataset.

USAGE:

contents(object, ...)
## S3 method for class 'data.frame':
contents(object, ...)
## S3 method for class 'contents.data.frame':
print(x,
    sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs'), prlevels=TRUE, ...) 
## S3 method for class 'contents.data.frame':
html(object,  sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs'), prlevels=TRUE,
           file=paste('contents',object$dfname,'html',sep='.'),
           append=FALSE, ...)
## S3 method for class 'list':
contents(object, dslabels, ...)
## S3 method for class 'contents.list':
print(x,
    sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs','vars'), ...)

ARGUMENTS:

object
a data frame. For html is an object created by contents. For contents.list is a list of data frames.
x
an object created by contents
sort
Default is to print the variables in their original order in the data frame. Specify one of "names", "labels", or "NAs" to sort the variables by, respectively, alphabetically by names, alphabetically by labels, or by increaseing order of number of missing values. For contents.list, sort may also be the value "vars" to cause sorting by the number of variables in the dataset.
prlevels
set to FALSE to not print all levels of factor variables
file
file to which to write the html code. Default is "conents.dfname.html" where dfname is the name of the data frame processed by contents.
append
set to TRUE to add html code to an existing file
...
arguments passed from html to format.df, unused otherwise
dslabels
named vector of SAS dataset labels, created for example by

VALUE:

an object of class "contents.data.frame" or "contents.list"

AUTHOR(S):

Frank Harrell
Vanderbilt University
mailto:f.harrell@vanderbilt.edu

SEE ALSO:

,

EXAMPLES:

set.seed(1)
dfr <- data.frame(x=rnorm(400),y=sample(c('male','female'),400,TRUE))
contents(dfr)
k <- contents(dfr)
print(k, sort='names', prlevels=FALSE)
## Not run: 
html(k)
html(contents(dfr))            # same result
w <- html(k, file='my.html')   # create my.html, don't display
## End(Not run)