Content from Before we Start


Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 40 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What is R and why learn it?
  • How to find your way around RStudio?
  • How to interact with R?
  • How to install packages?

Objectives

  • Navigate the RStudio interface.
  • Install additional packages using the packages tab.
  • Install additional packages using R code.

This episode is adapted from Before We Start from the R for Social Scientists Carpentry lesson, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0).

What is R? What is RStudio?


R is more of a programming language than just a statistics program. It was started by Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka from the University of Auckland in 1995. They described it as “a language for data analysis and graphics.” You can use R to create, import, and scrape data from the web; clean and reshape it; visualize it; run statistical analysis and modeling operations on it; text and data mine it; and much more. The term “R” is used to refer to both the programming language and the software that interprets the scripts written using it.

RStudio is a user interface for working with R. It is called an Integrated Development Environment (IDE): a piece of software that provides tools to make programming easier. RStudio acts as a sort of wrapper around the R language. You can use R without RStudio, but it’s much more limiting. RStudio makes it easier to import datasets, create and write scripts, and makes using R much more effective. RStudio is also free and open source. To function correctly, RStudio needs R and therefore both need to be installed on your computer.

Why learn R?


R does not involve lots of pointing and clicking, and that’s a good thing

The learning curve might be steeper than with other software, but with R, the results of your analysis do not rely on remembering a succession of pointing and clicking, but instead on a series of written commands, and that’s a good thing! So, if you want to redo your analysis because you collected more data, you don’t have to remember which button you clicked in which order to obtain your results; you just have to run your script again.

Working with scripts makes the steps you used in your analysis clear, and the code you write can be inspected by someone else who can give you feedback and spot mistakes. It forces you to have a deeper understanding of what you are doing, and facilitates your learning and comprehension of the methods you use.

R code is great for reproducibility

Reproducibility is when someone else (including your future self) can obtain the same results from the same dataset when using the same analysis.

R integrates with other tools to generate manuscripts from your code. If you collect more data, or fix a mistake in your dataset, the figures and the statistical tests in your manuscript are updated automatically.

An increasing number of journals and funding agencies expect analyses to be reproducible, so knowing R will give you an edge with these requirements.

R is interdisciplinary and extensible

With 10,000+ packages that can be installed to extend its capabilities, R provides a framework that allows you to combine statistical approaches from many scientific disciplines to best suit the analytical framework you need to analyze your data. For instance, R has packages for image analysis, GIS, time series, population genetics, and a lot more.

R works on data of all shapes and sizes

The skills you learn with R scale easily with the size of your dataset. Whether your dataset has hundreds or millions of lines, it won’t make much difference to you.

R is designed for data analysis. It comes with special data structures and data types that make handling of missing data and statistical factors convenient.

R can connect to spreadsheets, databases, and many other data formats, on your computer or on the web.

R produces high-quality graphics

The plotting functionalities in R are endless, and allow you to adjust any aspect of your graph to convey most effectively the message from your data.

R has a large and welcoming community

Thousands of people use R daily. Many of them are willing to help you through mailing lists and websites such as Stack Overflow, or on the RStudio community. Questions which are backed up with short, reproducible code snippets are more likely to attract knowledgeable responses.

Not only is R free, but it is also open-source and cross-platform

R is also free and open source, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.. This means it is free to download and use the software for any purpose, modify it, and share it. Anyone can inspect the source code to see how R works. Because of this transparency, there is less chance for mistakes, and if you (or someone else) find some, you can report and fix bugs. As a result, R users have created thousands of packages and software to enhance user experience and functionality.

Because R is open source and is supported by a large community of developers and users, there is a very large selection of third-party add-on packages which are freely available to extend R’s native capabilities.

Two images of a DMC Delorian: left is a standard model and on the right is one that has been modified into the time machine from 'Back To The Future'
RStudio extends what R can do, and makes it easier to write R code and interact with R. Left photo credit; right photo credit.

R and librarianship

For at least the last decade, librarians have been grappling with the ways that the “data deluge” affects our work on multiple levels–collection development, analyzing usage of the library website/space/collections, reference services, information literacy instruction, research support, accessing bibliographic metadata from third parties, and more.

By using R or any advanced data analysis platform (such as Python), libraries can harness data in order to:

  • Clean messy data from the ILS & vendors
    • Clean ISBNs, ISSNs, other identifiers
    • Detect data errors & anomalies
    • Normalize names (e.g. databases, ebooks, serials)
    • Create custom subsets
  • Merge and analyze data, e.g.
    • Holdings and usage data from the same vendor
    • Print book & ebook holdings
    • COUNTER statistics
    • Institutional data
  • Recode variables
  • Manipulate dates and times
  • Create visualizations
  • Provide data reference services
  • Access data via APIs, including Crossref, Unpaywall, ORCID, and Sherpa-ROMeO
  • Write documents to communicate findings

Knowing your way around RStudio


Let’s start by learning about RStudio, which is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for working with R.

The RStudio IDE open-source product is free under the Affero General Public License (AGPL) v3. The RStudio IDE is also available with a commercial license and priority email support from RStudio, Inc.

We will use the RStudio IDE to write code, navigate the files on our computer, inspect the variables we create, and visualize the plots we generate. RStudio can also be used for other things (e.g., version control, developing packages, writing Shiny apps) that we will not cover during the workshop.

One of the advantages of using RStudio is that all the information you need to write code is available in a single window. Additionally, RStudio provides many shortcuts, autocompletion, and highlighting for the major file types you use while developing in R. RStudio makes typing easier and less error-prone.

Getting set up


It is good practice to keep a set of related data, analyses, and text self-contained in a single folder called the working directory. All of the scripts within this folder can then use relative paths to files. Relative paths indicate where inside the project a file is located (as opposed to absolute paths, which point to where a file is on a specific computer). Working this way makes it a lot easier to move your project around on your computer and share it with others without having to directly modify file paths in the individual scripts.

RStudio provides a helpful set of tools to do this through its “Projects” interface, which not only creates a working directory for you but also remembers its location (allowing you to quickly navigate to it). The interface also (optionally) preserves custom settings and open files to make it easier to resume work after a break.

Create a new project

  • Under the File menu, click on New project, choose New directory, then New project
  • Enter the name library_carpentry for this new folder (or “directory”). This will be your working directory for the rest of the day.
  • Click on Create project
  • Create a new file where we will type our scripts. Go to File > New File > R script. Click the save icon on your toolbar and save your script as “script.R”.

The RStudio Interface

Let’s take a quick tour of RStudio.

screenshot of RStudio with labels of the four panes as described below
R Studio

RStudio is divided into four “panes”. The placement of these panes and their content can be customized (see menu, Tools -> Global Options -> Pane Layout).

The Default Layout is:

  • Console Pane (bottom left) If you were just using the basic R interface, without RStudio, this is all you would see. You use this to type in a command and press enter to immediately evaluate it. It includes a > symbol and a blinking cursor prompting you to enter some code. Code that you type directly in the console will not be saved, though it is available in the History Pane. You can try it out by typing 2 + 2 into the console.

  • Script Pane (top left) This is sort of like a text editor, or a place to draft and save code. You then tell RStudio to run the line of code, or multiple lines of code, and you can see it appear in the console as it is running. Then save the script as a .R file for future use, or to share with others.

  • Environment/History Pane (top right) This will display the objects that you’ve read into what is called the “global environment.” When you read a file into R, or manually create an R object, it enters into the computer’s working memory. When we manipulate or run operations on that data, it isn’t written to a file until we tell it to. It is kept here in the RStudio environment. The History tab displays all commands that have been executed in the console.

  • Navigation Pane (bottom right) This pane has multiple functions:

    • Files: Navigate to files saved on your computer and in your working directory
    • Plots: View plots (e.g. charts and graphs) you have created
    • Packages: view add-on packages you have installed, or install new packages
    • Help: Read help pages for R functions
    • Viewer: View local web content

Interacting with R


The basis of programming is that we write down instructions for the computer to follow, and then we tell the computer to follow those instructions. We write, or code, instructions in R because it is a common language that both the computer and we can understand.

There are two main ways of interacting with R: by using the console or by using script files (plain text files that contain your code). The console pane (in RStudio, the bottom left panel) is the place where commands written in the R language can be typed and executed immediately by the computer. It is also where the results will be shown for commands that have been executed. You can type commands directly into the console and press Enter to execute those commands, but they will be forgotten when you close the session.

The prompt is the blinking cursor in the console pane prompting you to take action, in the lower-left corner of R Studio. If R is ready to accept commands, the R console shows a > prompt. If R receives a command (by typing, copy-pasting, or sent from the script editor using Ctrl + Enter), R will try to execute it and, when ready, will show the results and come back with a new > prompt to wait for new commands. We type commands into the prompt, and press the Enter key to evaluate (also called execute or run) those commands.

You can use R like a calculator:

R

2 + 2    # Type 2 + 2 in the console to run the command

While in the console, you can press the up and down keys on your keyboard to cycle through previously executed commands.

Because we want our code and workflow to be reproducible, it is better to type the commands we want in the script editor and save the script. This way, there is a complete record of what we did, and anyone (including our future selves!) can easily replicate the results on their computer.

RStudio allows you to execute commands directly from the script editor by using the Ctrl + Enter shortcut (on Mac, Cmd + Return will work). The command on the current line in the script (indicated by the cursor) or all of the commands in selected text will be sent to the console and executed when you press Ctrl + Enter. If there is information in the console you do not need anymore, you can clear it with Ctrl + L. You can find other keyboard shortcuts in this RStudio cheatsheet about the RStudio IDE.

At some point in your analysis, you may want to check the content of a variable or the structure of an object without necessarily keeping a record of it in your script. You can type these commands and execute them directly in the console. RStudio provides the Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl + 2 shortcuts allow you to jump between the script and the console panes.

If R is still waiting for you to enter more text, the console will show a + prompt. It means that you haven’t finished entering a complete command. This is likely because you have not ‘closed’ a parenthesis or quotation, i.e. you don’t have the same number of left-parentheses as right-parentheses or the same number of opening and closing quotation marks. When this happens, and you thought you finished typing your command, click inside the console window andx press Esc; this will cancel the incomplete command and return you to the > prompt. You can then proofread the command(s) you entered and correct the error.

Installing additional packages using the packages tab


When you download R it already has a number of functions built in: these encompass what is called Base R. However, many R users write their own libraries of functions, package them together in R Packages, and provide them to the R community at no charge. This extends the capacity of R and allows us to do much more. In many cases, they improve on the Base R functions by making them easier and more straightforward to use. In the course of this lesson we will be making use of several of these packages, such as ggplot2 and dplyr.

The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) is the main repository for R packages, and that organization maintains strict standards in order for a package to be listed–for example, it must include clear descriptions of the functions, and it must not track or tamper with the user’s R session. See this page from RStudio for a good list of useful R packages. In addition to CRAN, R users can make their code and packages available from GitHub. Finally, some communities host their own collections of R packages, such as Bioconductor for computational biology and bioinformatics.

Installing Packages


Installing CRAN packages can be done from the RStudio console. Click the Packages tab in the Navigation Pane, then click Install and search for the package you’re looking for. You can also use the install.packages() function directly in the console. Run help(install.packages) to learn more about how to do it this way.

install packages pane showing an entry for installing the 'tidyverse' package
Click on the Packages tab in the Navigation Pane to download packages from CRAN.

At the bottom of the Install Packages window is a check box to ‘Install’ dependencies. This is ticked by default, which is usually what you want. Packages can (and do) make use of functionality built into other packages, so for the functionality contained in the package you are installing to work properly, there may be other packages which have to be installed with them. The ‘Install dependencies’ option makes sure that this happens.

Exercise

Use the install option from the packages tab to install the ‘tidyverse’ package.

From the packages tab, click ‘Install’ from the toolbar and type ‘tidyverse’ into the textbox, then click ‘install’. The ‘tidyverse’ package is really a package of packages, including ‘ggplot2’ and ‘dplyr’, both of which require other packages to run correctly. All of these packages will be installed automatically. Depending on what packages have previously been installed in your R environment, the install of ‘tidyverse’ could be very quick or could take several minutes. As the install proceeds, messages relating to its progress will be written to the console. You will be able to see all of the packages which are actually being installed.

Because the install process accesses the CRAN repository, you will need an Internet connection to install packages.

It is also possible to install packages from other repositories, as well as Github or the local file system, but we won’t be looking at these options in this lesson.

Installing additional packages using R code


If you were watching the console window when you started the install of ‘tidyverse’, you may have noticed that the line

R

install.packages("tidyverse")

was written to the console before the start of the installation messages.

You could also have installed the tidyverse packages by running this command directly in the R console.

R Resources


Learning R

  1. swirl is a package you can install in R to learn about R and data science interactively. Just type install.packages("swirl") into your R console, load the package by typing library("swirl"), and then type swirl(). Read more at swirl.

  2. Try R is a browser-based interactive tutorial developed by Code School.

  3. Anthony Damico’s twotorials are a series of 2 minute videos demonstrating several basic tasks in R.

  4. Cookbook for R by Winston Change provides solutions to common tasks and problems in analyzing data.

  5. If you’re up for a challenge, try the free R Programming MOOC in Coursera by Roger Peng.

  6. Books:

Data

If you need some data to play with, type data() in the console for a list of data sets. To load a dataset, type it like this: data(mtcars). Type help(mtcars) to learn more about it. You can then perform operations, e.g.

R

head(mtcars)
nrow(mtcars)
mean(mtcars$mpg)
sixCylinder <- mtcars[mtcars$cyl == 6, ]

See also rdatamining.com’s list of free datasets.

Style guides

Use these resources to write cleaner code, according to established style conventions

  • Hadley Wickham’s Style Guide
  • Google’s R Style Guide
  • Tip: highlight code in your script pane and press Ctrl/Cmd + I on your keyboard to automatically fix the indents

Credit


Parts of this episode have been inspired by the following:

Key Points

  • Use RStudio to write and run R programs.
  • Use install.packages() to install packages (libraries).

Content from Introduction to R


Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 80 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What is an object?
  • What is a function and how can we pass arguments to functions?
  • How can values be initially assigned to variables of different data types?
  • How can a vector be created What are the available data types?
  • How can subsets be extracted from vectors?
  • How does R treat missing values?
  • How can we deal with missing values in R?

Objectives

  • Assign values to objects in R.
  • Learn how to name objects.
  • Use comments to inform script.
  • Solve simple arithmetic operations in R.
  • Call functions and use arguments to change their default options.
  • Inspect the content of vectors and manipulate their content.
  • Subset and extract values from vectors.
  • Analyze vectors with missing data.
  • Define the following terms as they relate to R: object, vector, assign, call, function.

Creating objects in R


You can get output from R simply by typing math in the console:

R

3 + 5

OUTPUT

[1] 8

R

7 * 2   # multiply 7 by 2

OUTPUT

[1] 14

R

sqrt(36) # take the square root of 36

OUTPUT

[1] 6

However, to do useful and interesting things, we need to assign values to objects. To create an object, we need to give it a name followed by the assignment operator <-, and the value we want to give it:

R

time_minutes <- 5        # assign the number 5 to the object time_minutes

<- is the assignment operator. It assigns values on the right to objects on the left. Here we are creating a symbol called time_minutes and assigning it the numeric value 5. Some R users would say “time_minutes gets 5.” time_minutes is now a numeric vector with one element. Or you could say time_minutes is a numeric vector, and the first element is the number 5.

When you assign something to a symbol, nothing happens in the console, but in the Environment pane in the upper right, you will notice a new object, time_minutes.

In RStudio, typing Alt + - (push Alt at the same time as the - key) will write <- in a single keystroke in a PC, while typing Option + - (push Option at the same time as the - key) does the same in a Mac.

Objects can be given any name such as x, checkouts, or isbn. You want your object names to be explicit and not too long. Here are some tips for assigning values:

  • Do not use names of functions that already exist in R: There are some names that cannot be used because they are the names of fundamental functions in R (e.g., if, else, for, see here for a complete list. In general, even if it’s allowed, it’s best to not use other function names (e.g., c, T, mean, data, df, weights). If in doubt, check the help to see if the name is already in use.
  • R is case sensitive: age is different from Age and y is different from Y.
  • No blank spaces or symbols other than underscores: R users get around this in a couple of ways, either through capitalization (e.g. myData) or underscores (e.g. my_data). It’s also best to avoid dots (.) within an object name as in my.dataset. There are many functions in R with dots in their names for historical reasons, but dots have a special meaning in R (for methods) and other programming languages.
  • Do not begin with numbers or symbols: 2x is not valid, but x2 is.
  • Be descriptive, but make your variable names short: It’s good practice to be descriptive with your variable names. If you’re loading in a lot of data, choosing myData or x as a name may not be as helpful as, say, ebookUsage. Finally, keep your variable names short, since you will likely be typing them in frequently.

Objects vs. variables

What are known as objects in R are known as variables in many other programming languages. Depending on the context, object and variable can have drastically different meanings. However, in this lesson, the two words are used synonymously. For more information see: https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-lang.html#Objects

Evaluating Expressions


If you now type time_minutes into the console, and press Enter on your keyboard, R will evaluate the expression. In this case, R will print the elements that are assigned to time_minutes (the number 5). We can do this easily since y only has one element, but if you do this with a large dataset loaded into R, it will overload your console because it will print the entire thing. The [1] indicates that the number 5 is the first element of this vector.

When assigning a value to an object, R does not print anything to the console. You can force R to print the value by using parentheses or by typing the object name:

R

time_minutes <- 5    # doesn't print anything
(time_minutes <- 5)  # putting parenthesis around the call prints the value of y

OUTPUT

[1] 5

R

time_minutes         # so does typing the name of the object

OUTPUT

[1] 5

R

print(time_minutes)  # so does using the print() function.

OUTPUT

[1] 5

Now that R has time_minutes in memory, we can do arithmetic with it. For instance, we may want to convert it into seconds (60 seconds in 1 minute):

R

60 * time_minutes

OUTPUT

[1] 300

We can also change an object’s value by assigning it a new one:

R

time_minutes <- 10
60 * time_minutes

OUTPUT

[1] 600

This overwrites the previous value without prompting you, so be careful! Also, assigning a value to one object does not change the values of other objects For example, let’s store the time in seconds in a new object, time_seconds:

R

time_seconds <- 60 * time_minutes

Then change time_minutes to 30:

R

time_minutes <- 30

Exercise

What do you think is the current content of the object time_seconds? 600 or 1800?

The value of time_seconds is still 600 because you have not re-run the line time_seconds <- 60 * time_minutes since changing the value of time_minutes.

Exercise

Create two variables my_length and my_width and assign them any numeric values you want. Create a third variable my_area and give it a value based on the the multiplication of my_length and my_width. Show that changing the values of either my_length and my_width does not affect the value of my_area.

R

my_length <- 2.5
my_width <- 3.2
my_area <- my_length * my_width
area

ERROR

Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos): object 'area' not found

R

# change the values of my_length and my_width
my_length <- 7.0
my_width <- 6.5
# the value of my_area isn't changed
my_area

OUTPUT

[1] 8

Comments


All programming languages allow the programmer to include comments in their code. To do this in R we use the # character. Anything to the right of the # sign and up to the end of the line is treated as a comment and will not be evaluated by R. You can start lines with comments or include them after any code on the line.

Comments are essential to helping you remember what your code does, and explaining it to others. Commenting code, along with documenting how data is collected and explaining what each variable represents, is essential to reproducible research. See the Software Carpentry lesson on R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis.

R

time_minutes <- 5    # time in minutes
time_seconds <- 60 * time_minutes  # convert to seconds
time_seconds        # print time in seconds

OUTPUT

[1] 300

RStudio makes it easy to comment or uncomment a paragraph: after selecting the lines you want to comment, press at the same time on your keyboard Ctrl + Shift + C. If you only want to comment out one line, you can put the cursor at any location of that line (i.e. no need to select the whole line), then press Ctrl + Shift + C.

Removing objects from the environment


To remove an object from your R environment, use the rm() function. Remove multiple objects with rm(list = c("add", "objects", "here)), adding the objects in c() using quotation marks. To remove all objects, use rm(list = ls()) or click the broom icon in the Environment Pane, next to “Import Dataset.”

R

x <- 5
y <- 10
z <- 15
rm(x)  # remove x
rm(list =c("y", "z"))  # remove y and z
rm(list = ls())  # remove all objects

Functions and their arguments


R is a “functional programming language,” meaning it contains a number of functions you use to do something with your data. Functions are “canned scripts” that automate more complicated sets of commands. Many functions are predefined, or can be made available by importing R packages as we saw in the “Before We Start” lesson.

Call a function on a variable by entering the function into the console, followed by parentheses and the variables. A function usually gets one or more inputs called arguments. For example, if you want to take the sum of 3 and 4, you can type in sum(3, 4). In this case, the arguments must be a number, and the return value (the output) is the sum of those numbers. An example of a function call is:

R

sum(3, 4)

The function is.function() will check if an argument is a function in R. If it is a function, it will print TRUE to the console.

Functions can be nested within each other. For example, sqrt() takes the square root of the number provided in the function call. Therefore you can run sum(sqrt(9), 4) to take the sum of the square root of 9 and add it to 4.

Typing a question mark before a function will pull the help page up in the Navigation Pane in the lower right. Type ?sum to view the help page for the sum function. You can also call help(sum). This will provide the description of the function, how it is to be used, and the arguments.

In the case of sum(), the ellipses . . . represent an unlimited number of numeric elements.

R

is.function(sum)        # check to see if sum() is a function
sum(3, 4, 5, 6, 7)      # sum takes an unlimited number (. . .) of numeric elements

Arguments

Some functions take arguments which may either be specified by the user, or, if left out, take on a default value. However, if you want something specific, you can specify a value of your choice which will be used instead of the default. This is called passing an argument to the function.

For example, sum() takes the argument option na.rm. If you check the help page for sum (call ?sum), you can see that na.rm requires a logical (TRUE/FALSE) value specifying whether NA values (missing data) should be removed when the argument is evaluated.

By default, na.rm is set to FALSE, so evaluating a sum with missing values will return NA:

R

sum(3, 4, NA)                # 

OUTPUT

[1] NA

Even though we do not see the argument here, it is operating in the background, as the NA value remains. 3 + 4 + NA is NA.

But setting the argument na.rm to TRUE will remove the NA:

R

sum(3, 4, NA, na.rm = TRUE)

OUTPUT

[1] 7

It is very important to understand the different arguments that functions take, the values that can be added to those functions, and the default arguments. Arguments can be anything, not only TRUE or FALSE, but also other objects. Exactly what each argument means differs per function, and must be looked up in the documentation.

It’s good practice to put the non-optional arguments first in your function call, and to specify the names of all optional arguments. If you don’t, someone reading your code might have to look up the definition of a function with unfamiliar arguments to understand what you’re doing.

Exercise

Type in ?round at the console and then look at the output in the Help pane. What other functions exist that are similar to round? How do you use the digits parameter in the round function?

Vectors and data types


A vector is the most common and basic data type in R, and is pretty much the workhorse of R. A vector is a sequence of elements of the same type. Vectors can only contain “homogenous” data–in other words, all data must be of the same type. The type of a vector determines what kind of analysis you can do on it. For example, you can perform mathematical operations on numeric objects, but not on character objects.

We can assign a series of values to a vector using the c() function. c() stands for combine. If you read the help files for c() by calling help(c), you can see that it takes an unlimited . . . number of arguments.

For example we can create a vector of checkouts for a collection of books and assign it to a new object checkouts:

R

checkouts <- c(25, 15, 18)
checkouts

OUTPUT

[1] 25 15 18

A vector can also contain characters. For example, we can have a vector of the book titles (title) and authors (author):

R

title <- c("Macbeth","Dracula","1984")

The quotes around “Macbeth”, etc. are essential here. Without the quotes R will assume there are objects called Macbeth and Dracula in the environment. As these objects don’t yet exist in R’s memory, there will be an error message.

There are many functions that allow you to inspect the content of a vector. length() tells you how many elements are in a particular vector:

R

length(checkouts)  # print the number of values in the checkouts vector

OUTPUT

[1] 3

An important feature of a vector, is that all of the elements are the same type of data. The function class() indicates the class (the type of element) of an object:

R

class(checkouts)

OUTPUT

[1] "numeric"

R

class(title)

OUTPUT

[1] "character"

Type ?str into the console to read the description of the str function. You can call str() on an R object to compactly display information about it, including the data type, the number of elements, and a printout of the first few elements.

R

str(checkouts)

OUTPUT

 num [1:3] 25 15 18

R

str(title)

OUTPUT

 chr [1:3] "Macbeth" "Dracula" "1984"

You can use the c() function to add other elements to your vector:

R

author <- "Stoker"
author <- c(author, "Orwell") # add to the end of the vector
author <- c("Shakespeare", author)
author

OUTPUT

[1] "Shakespeare" "Stoker"      "Orwell"     

In the first line, we create a character vector author with a single value "Stoker". In the second line, we add the value "Orwell" to it, and save the result back into author. Then we add the value "Shakespeare" to the beginning, again saving the result back into author.

We can do this over and over again to grow a vector, or assemble a dataset. As we program, this may be useful to add results that we are collecting or calculating.

An atomic vector is the simplest R data type and is a linear vector of a single type. Above, we saw 2 of the 6 main atomic vector types that R uses: "character" and "numeric" (or "double"). These are the basic building blocks that all R objects are built from. The other 4 atomic vector types are:

  • "logical" for TRUE and FALSE (the boolean data type)
  • "integer" for integer numbers (e.g., 2L, the L indicates to R that it’s an integer)
  • "complex" to represent complex numbers with real and imaginary parts (e.g., 1 + 4i) and that’s all we’re going to say about them
  • "raw" for bitstreams that we won’t discuss further

You can check the type of your vector using the typeof() function and inputting your vector as the argument.

Vectors are one of the many data structures that R uses. Other important ones are lists (list), matrices (matrix), data frames (data.frame), factors (factor) and arrays (array).

Exercise

We’ve seen that atomic vectors can be of type character, numeric (or double), integer, and logical. But what happens if we try to mix these types in a single vector?

R implicitly converts them to all be the same type.

Exercise(continued)

What will happen in each of these examples? (hint: use typeof() to check the data type of your objects):

R

num_char <- c(1, 2, 3, "a")
num_logical <- c(1, 2, 3, TRUE)
char_logical <- c("a", "b", "c", TRUE)
tricky <- c(1, 2, 3, "4")

Why do you think it happens?

Vectors can be of only one data type. R tries to convert (coerce) the content of this vector to find a “common denominator” that doesn’t lose any information.

Exercise(continued)

How many values in combined_logical are "TRUE" (as a character) in the following example:

R

num_logical <- c(1, 2, 3, TRUE)
char_logical <- c("a", "b", "c", TRUE)
combined_logical <- c(num_logical, char_logical)

 

Only one. There is no memory of past data types, and the coercion happens the first time the vector is evaluated. Therefore, the TRUE in num_logical gets converted into a 1 before it gets converted into "1" in combined_logical.

You’ve probably noticed that objects of different types get converted into a single, shared type within a vector. In R, we call converting objects from one class into another class coercion. These conversions happen according to a hierarchy, whereby some types get preferentially coerced into other types. This hierarchy is: logical < integer < numeric < complex < character < list.

You can also coerce a vector to be a specific data type with as.character(), as.logical(), as.numeric(), etc. For example, to coerce a number to a character:

R

x <- as.character(200)

We can test this in a few ways: if we print x to the console, we see quotation marks around it, letting us know it is a character:

R

x

OUTPUT

[1] "200"

We can also call class()

R

class(x)

OUTPUT

[1] "character"

And if we try to add a number to x, we will get an error message non-numeric argument to binary operator--in other words, x is non-numeric and cannot be added to a number.

R

x + 5

Subsetting vectors


If we want to subset (or extract) one or several values from a vector, we must provide one or several indices in square brackets. For this example, we will use the state data, which is built into R and includes data related to the 50 states of the U.S.A. Type ?state to see the included datasets. state.name is a built in vector in R of all U.S. states:

R

state.name

OUTPUT

 [1] "Alabama"        "Alaska"         "Arizona"        "Arkansas"      
 [5] "California"     "Colorado"       "Connecticut"    "Delaware"      
 [9] "Florida"        "Georgia"        "Hawaii"         "Idaho"         
[13] "Illinois"       "Indiana"        "Iowa"           "Kansas"        
[17] "Kentucky"       "Louisiana"      "Maine"          "Maryland"      
[21] "Massachusetts"  "Michigan"       "Minnesota"      "Mississippi"   
[25] "Missouri"       "Montana"        "Nebraska"       "Nevada"        
[29] "New Hampshire"  "New Jersey"     "New Mexico"     "New York"      
[33] "North Carolina" "North Dakota"   "Ohio"           "Oklahoma"      
[37] "Oregon"         "Pennsylvania"   "Rhode Island"   "South Carolina"
[41] "South Dakota"   "Tennessee"      "Texas"          "Utah"          
[45] "Vermont"        "Virginia"       "Washington"     "West Virginia" 
[49] "Wisconsin"      "Wyoming"       

R

state.name[1]

OUTPUT

[1] "Alabama"

You can use the : colon to create a vector of consecutive numbers.

R

state.name[1:5] 

OUTPUT

[1] "Alabama"    "Alaska"     "Arizona"    "Arkansas"   "California"

If the numbers are not consecutive, you must use the c() function:

R

state.name[c(1, 10, 20)]

OUTPUT

[1] "Alabama"  "Georgia"  "Maryland"

We can also repeat the indices to create an object with more elements than the original one:

R

state.name[c(1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3)]

OUTPUT

[1] "Alabama" "Alaska"  "Arizona" "Alaska"  "Alabama" "Arizona"

R indices start at 1. Programming languages like Fortran, MATLAB, Julia, and R start counting at 1, because that’s what human beings typically do. Languages in the C family (including C++, Java, Perl, and Python) count from 0 because that’s simpler for computers to do.

Conditional subsetting

Another common way of subsetting is by using a logical vector. TRUE will select the element with the same index, while FALSE will not:

R

five_states <- state.name[1:5]
five_states[c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)]

OUTPUT

[1] "Alabama"    "Arizona"    "California"

Typically, these logical vectors are not typed by hand, but are the output of other functions or logical tests. state.area is a vector of state areas in square miles. We can use the < operator to return a logical vector with TRUE for the indices that meet the condition:

R

state.area < 10000

OUTPUT

 [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
[13] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[25] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[37] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[49] FALSE FALSE

R

state.area[state.area < 10000]

OUTPUT

[1] 5009 2057 6450 8257 9304 7836 1214 9609

The first expression gives us a logical vector of length 50, where TRUE represents those states with areas less than 10,000 square miles. The second expression subsets state.name to include only those names where the value is TRUE.

You can also specify character values. state.region gives the region that each state belongs to:

R

state.region == "Northeast"

OUTPUT

 [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[13] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[25] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[37] FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[49] FALSE FALSE

R

state.name[state.region == "Northeast"]

OUTPUT

[1] "Connecticut"   "Maine"         "Massachusetts" "New Hampshire"
[5] "New Jersey"    "New York"      "Pennsylvania"  "Rhode Island" 
[9] "Vermont"      

Again, a TRUE/FALSE index of all 50 states where the region is the Northeast, followed by a subset of state.name to return only those TRUE values.

Sometimes you need to do multiple logical tests (think Boolean logic). You can combine multiple tests using | (at least one of the conditions is true, OR) or & (both conditions are true, AND). Use help(Logic) to read the help file.

R

state.name[state.area < 10000 | state.region == "Northeast"]

OUTPUT

 [1] "Connecticut"   "Delaware"      "Hawaii"        "Maine"        
 [5] "Massachusetts" "New Hampshire" "New Jersey"    "New York"     
 [9] "Pennsylvania"  "Rhode Island"  "Vermont"      

R

state.name[state.area < 10000 & state.region == "Northeast"]

OUTPUT

[1] "Connecticut"   "Massachusetts" "New Hampshire" "New Jersey"   
[5] "Rhode Island"  "Vermont"      

The first result includes both states with fewer than 10,000 sq. mi. and all states in the Northeast. New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maine have areas with greater than 10,000 square miles, but are in the Northeastern U.S. Hawaii is not in the Northeast, but it has fewer than 10,000 square miles. The second result includes only states that are in the Northeast and have fewer than 10,000 sq. mi.

R contains a number of operators you can use to compare values. Use help(Comparison) to read the R help file. Note that two equal signs (==) are used for evaluating equality (because one equals sign (=) is used for assigning variables).

A common task is to search for certain strings in a vector. One could use the “or” operator | to test for equality to multiple values, but this can quickly become tedious. The function %in% allows you to test if any of the elements of a search vector are found:

R

west_coast <- c("California", "Oregon", "Washington")
state.name[state.name == "California" | state.name == "Oregon" | state.name == "Washington"]

OUTPUT

[1] "California" "Oregon"     "Washington"

R

state.name %in% west_coast

OUTPUT

 [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[13] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[25] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
[37]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
[49] FALSE FALSE

R

state.name[state.name %in% west_coast]

OUTPUT

[1] "California" "Oregon"     "Washington"

Missing data


As R was designed to analyze datasets, it includes the concept of missing data (which is uncommon in other programming languages). Missing data are represented in vectors as NA. R functions have special actions when they encounter NA.

When doing operations on numbers, most functions will return NA if the data you are working with include missing values. This feature makes it harder to overlook the cases where you are dealing with missing data. As we saw above, you can add the argument na.rm=TRUE to calculate the result while ignoring the missing values.

R

rooms <- c(2, 1, 1, NA, 4)
mean(rooms)

OUTPUT

[1] NA

R

max(rooms)

OUTPUT

[1] NA

R

mean(rooms, na.rm = TRUE)

OUTPUT

[1] 2

R

max(rooms, na.rm = TRUE)

OUTPUT

[1] 4

If your data include missing values, you may want to become familiar with the functions is.na(), na.omit(), and complete.cases(). See below for examples.

R

## Use any() to check if any values are missing
any(is.na(rooms))

OUTPUT

[1] TRUE

R

## Use table() to tell you how many are missing vs. not missing
table(is.na(rooms))

OUTPUT


FALSE  TRUE 
    4     1 

R

## Identify those elements that are not missing values.
complete.cases(rooms)

OUTPUT

[1]  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE

R

## Identify those elements that are missing values.
is.na(rooms)

OUTPUT

[1] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE

R

## Extract those elements that are not missing values.
rooms[complete.cases(rooms)]

OUTPUT

[1] 2 1 1 4

You can also use !is.na(rooms), which is exactly the same as complete.cases(rooms). The exclamation mark indicates logical negation.

R

!c(TRUE, FALSE)

OUTPUT

[1] FALSE  TRUE

How you deal with missing data in your analysis is a decision you will have to make–do you remove it entirely? Do you replace it with zeros? That will depend on your own methodological questions.

Exercise

  1. Using this vector of rooms, create a new vector with the NAs removed.

R

rooms <- c(1, 2, 1, 1, NA, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1, 1, 8, 3, 1, NA, 1)
  1. Use the function median() to calculate the median of the rooms vector.

  2. Use R to figure out how many households in the room variable have more than 2 rooms.

R

rooms <- c(1, 2, 1, 1, NA, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1, 1, 8, 3, 1, NA, 1)
rooms_no_na <- rooms[!is.na(rooms)]
# or
rooms_no_na <- na.omit(rooms)
# 2.
median(rooms, na.rm = TRUE)

OUTPUT

[1] 1

R

# 3.
rooms_above_2 <- rooms_no_na[rooms_no_na > 2]
length(rooms_above_2)

OUTPUT

[1] 4

Now that we have learned how to write scripts, and the basics of R’s data structures, we are ready to start working with the library catalog dataset and learn about data frames.

Key Points

  • Use the assignment operator <- to assign values to objects. You can now manipulate that object in R
  • R contains a number of functions you use to do something with your data. Functions automate more complicated sets of commands. Many functions are predefined, or can be made available by importing R packages
  • A vector is a sequence of elements of the same type. All data in a vector must be of the same type–character, numeric (or double), integer, and logical. Create vectors with c(). Use \[ \] to subset values from vectors.

Content from Starting with Data


Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 80 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What is a data.frame?
  • How can I read a complete csv file into R?
  • How can I get basic summary information about my dataset?
  • How can I change the way R treats strings in my dataset?
  • Why would I want strings to be treated differently?
  • How are dates represented in R and how can I change the format?

Objectives

  • Describe what a data frame is.
  • Load external data from a .csv file into a data frame.
  • Summarize the contents of a data frame.
  • Describe the difference between a factor and a string.
  • Convert between strings and factors.
  • Reorder and rename factors.
  • Change how character strings are handled in a data frame.
  • Examine and change date formats.

Open your Rproj file


First, open your R Project file (library_carpentry.Rproj) created in the Before We Start lesson.

If you did not complete that step, do the following:

  • Under the File menu, click on New project, choose New directory, then New project
  • Enter the name library_carpentry for this new folder (or “directory”). This will be your working directory for the rest of the day.
  • Click on Create project
  • Create a new file where we will type our scripts. Go to File > New File > R script. Click the save icon on your toolbar and save your script as “script.R”.

Presentation of the data


This data was downloaded from the University of Houston–Clear Lake Integrated Library System in 2018. It is a relatively random sample of books from the catalog. It consists of 10,000 observations of 11 variables.

These variables are:

  • CALL...BIBLIO. : Bibliographic call number. Most of these are cataloged with the Library of Congress classification, but there are also items cataloged in the Dewey Decimal System (including fiction and non-fiction), and Superintendent of Documents call numbers. Character.
  • X245.ab : The title and remainder of title. Exported from MARC tag 245|ab fields. Separated by a | pipe character. Character.
  • X245.c : The author (statement of responsibility). Exported from MARC tag 245|c. Character.
  • TOT.CHKOUT : The total number of checkouts. Integer.
  • LOUTDATE : The last date the item was checked out. Date. YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD
  • SUBJECT : Bibliographic subject in Library of Congress Subject Headings. Separated by a | pipe character. Character.
  • ISN : ISBN or ISSN. Exported from MARC field 020|a. Character
  • CALL...ITEM : Item call number. Most of these are NA but there are some secondary call numbers.
  • X008.Date.One : Date of publication. Date. YYYY
  • BCODE2 : Item format. Character.
  • BCODE1 Sub-collection. Character.

Getting data into R


Ways to get data into R

In order to use your data in R, you must import it and turn it into an R object. There are many ways to get data into R.

  • Manually: You can manually create it using the data.frame() function in Base R, or the tibble() function in the tidyverse.
  • Import it from a file Below is a very incomplete list
    • Text: TXT (readLines() function)
    • Tabular data: CSV, TSV (read.table() function or readr package)
    • Excel: XLSX (xlsx package)
    • Google sheets: (googlesheets package)
    • Statistics program: SPSS, SAS (haven package)
    • Databases: MySQL (RMySQL package)
  • Gather it from the web: You can connect to webpages, servers, or APIs directly from within R, or you can create a data scraped from HTML webpages using the rvest package. For example
    • the Twitter API with twitteR
    • Crossref data with rcrossref
    • World Bank’s World Development Indicators with WDI.

Organizing your working directory

Using a consistent folder structure across your projects will help keep things organized and make it easy to find/file things in the future. This can be especially helpful when you have multiple projects. In general, you might create directories (folders) for scripts, data, and documents. Here are some examples of suggested directories:

  • data/ Use this folder to store your raw data and intermediate datasets. For the sake of transparency and provenance, you should always keep a copy of your raw data accessible and do as much of your data cleanup and preprocessing programmatically (i.e., with scripts, rather than manually) as possible.
  • data_output/ When you need to modify your raw data, it might be useful to store the modified versions of the datasets in a different folder.
  • documents/ Used for outlines, drafts, and other text.
  • fig_output/ This folder can store the graphics that are generated by your scripts.
  • scripts/ A place to keep your R scripts for different analyses or plotting.

You may want additional directories or subdirectories depending on your project needs, but these should form the backbone of your working directory.

Diagram of a Working Directory, with folders for data, data output, documents, fig output, and scripts

The working directory

The working directory is an important concept to understand. It is the place on your computer where R will look for and save files. When you write code for your project, your scripts should refer to files in relation to the root of your working directory and only to files within this structure.

Using RStudio projects makes this easy and ensures that your working directory is set up properly. If you need to check it, you can use getwd(). If for some reason your working directory is not what it should be, you can change it in the RStudio interface by navigating in the file browser to where your working directory should be, then by clicking on the blue gear icon “More”, and selecting “Set As Working Directory”. Alternatively, you can use setwd("/path/to/working/directory") to reset your working directory. However, your scripts should not include this line, because it will fail on someone else’s computer.

Setting your working directory withsetwd()

Some points to note about setting your working directory:

The directory must be in quotation marks.

On Windows computers, directories in file paths are separated with a backslash \. However, in R, you must use a forward slash /. You can copy and paste from the Windows Explorer window directly into R and use find/replace (Ctrl/Cmd + F) in R Studio to replace all backslashes with forward slashes.

On Mac computers, open the Finder and navigate to the directory you wish to set as your working directory. Right click on that folder and press the options key on your keyboard. The ‘Copy “Folder Name”’ option will transform into ’Copy “Folder Name” as Pathname. It will copy the path to the folder to the clipboard. You can then paste this into your setwd() function. You do not need to replace backslashes with forward slashes.

After you set your working directory, you can use ./ to represent it. So if you have a folder in your directory called data, you can use read.csv(“./data”) to represent that sub-directory.

Downloading the data and getting set up

Now that you have set your working directory, we will create our folder structure using the dir.create() function.

For this lesson we will use the following folders in our working directory: data/, data_output/ and fig_output/. Let’s write them all in lowercase to be consistent. We can create them using the RStudio interface by clicking on the “New Folder” button in the file pane (bottom right), or directly from R by typing at console:

R

dir.create("data")
dir.create("data_output")
dir.create("fig_output")

Go to the Figshare page for this curriculum and download the dataset called “books.csv”. The direct download link is: https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/22031487. Place this downloaded file in the data/ you just created. Alternatively, you can do this directly from R by copying and pasting this in your terminal (your instructor can place this chunk of code in the Etherpad):

R

download.file("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/22031487",
              "data/books.csv", mode = "wb")

Now if you navigate to your data folder, the books.csv file should be there. We now need to load it into our R session.

tidyverse


R has some base functions for reading a local data file into your R session–namely read.table() and read.csv(), but these have some idiosyncrasies that were improved upon in the readr package, which is installed and loaded with tidyverse.

R

library(tidyverse)  # loads the core tidyverse, including dplyr, readr, ggplot2, purrr

OUTPUT

── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.1.2     ✔ purrr     1.0.1
✔ forcats   1.0.0     ✔ stringr   1.5.0
✔ ggplot2   3.4.2     ✔ tibble    3.2.1
✔ lubridate 1.9.2     ✔ tidyr     1.3.0
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors

To get our sample data into our R session, we will use the read_csv() function and assign it to the books value.

R

books <- read_csv("./data/books.csv")

You will see the message Parsed with column specification, followed by each column name and its data type. When you execute read_csv on a data file, it looks through the first 1000 rows of each column and guesses the data type for each column as it reads it into R. For example, in this dataset, it reads SUBJECT as col_character (character), and TOT.CHKOUT as col_double. You have the option to specify the data type for a column manually by using the col_types argument in read_csv.

You should now have an R object called books in the Environment pane: 10000 observations of 12 variables. We will be using this data file in the next module.

Note

read_csv() assumes that fields are delineated by commas, however, in several countries, the comma is used as a decimal separator and the semicolon (;) is used as a field delineator. If you want to read in this type of files in R, you can use the read_csv2 function. It behaves exactly like read_csv but uses different parameters for the decimal and the field separators. If you are working with another format, they can be both specified by the user. Check out the help for read_csv() by typing ?read_csv to learn more. There is also the read_tsv() for tab-separated data files, and read_delim() allows you to specify more details about the structure of your file.

RStudio environment pane showing one object 'books' with 10000 observations of 12 variables
The books CSV loaded as a tibble in your R environment

What are data frames and tibbles?


Data frames are the de facto data structure for tabular data in R, and what we use for data processing, statistics, and plotting.

A data frame is the representation of data in the format of a table where the columns are vectors that all have the same length. Because columns are vectors, each column must contain a single type of data (e.g., characters, integers, factors). For example, here is a figure depicting a data frame comprising a numeric, a character, and a logical vector.

A graphical depiction of a data frame. The first vector (column) is numeric; the second is character, and the third is logical.

A data frame can be created by hand, but most commonly they are generated by the functions read_csv() or read_table(); in other words, when importing spreadsheets from your hard drive (or the web).

A tibble is an extension of R data frames used by the tidyverse. When the data is read using read_csv(), it is stored in an object of class tbl_df, tbl, and data.frame. You can see the class of an object with class().

Inspecting data frames


When calling a tbl_df object (like books here), there is already a lot of information about our data frame being displayed such as the number of rows, the number of columns, the names of the columns, and as we just saw the class of data stored in each column. However, there are functions to extract this information from data frames. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of these functions. Let’s try them out!

  • Size:

    • dim(books) - returns a vector with the number of rows in the first element, and the number of columns as the second element (the dimensions of the object)
    • nrow(books) - returns the number of rows
    • ncol(books) - returns the number of columns
  • Content:

    • head(books) - shows the first 6 rows
    • tail(books) - shows the last 6 rows
  • Names:

    • names(books) - returns the column names (synonym of colnames() for data.frame objects)
  • Summary:

    • View(books) - look at the data in the viewer
    • str(books) - structure of the object and information about the class, length and content of each column
    • summary(books) - summary statistics for each column

Note: most of these functions are “generic”, they can be used on other types of objects besides data frames.

The map() function from purrr is a useful way of running a function on all variables in a data frame or list. If you loaded the tidyverse at the beginning of the session, you also loaded purrr. Here we call class() on books using map_chr(), which will return a character vector of the classes for each variable.

R

map_chr(books, class)

OUTPUT

CALL...BIBLIO.        X245.ab         X245.c       LOCATION     TOT.CHKOUT 
   "character"    "character"    "character"    "character"      "numeric" 
      LOUTDATE        SUBJECT            ISN   CALL...ITEM.  X008.Date.One 
   "character"    "character"    "character"    "character"    "character" 
        BCODE2         BCODE1 
   "character"    "character" 

Indexing and subsetting data frames


Our books data frame has 2 dimensions: rows (observations) and columns (variables). If we want to extract some specific data from it, we need to specify the “coordinates” we want from it. In the last session, we used square brackets [ ] to subset values from vectors. Here we will do the same thing for data frames, but we can now add a second dimension. Row numbers come first, followed by column numbers. However, note that different ways of specifying these coordinates lead to results with different classes.

R

## first element in the first column of the data frame (as a vector)
books[1, 1]
## first element in the 6th column (as a vector)
books[1, 6]
## first column of the data frame (as a vector)
books[[1]]
## first column of the data frame (as a data.frame)
books[1]
## first three elements in the 7th column (as a vector)
books[1:3, 7]
## the 3rd row of the data frame (as a data.frame)
books[3, ]
## equivalent to head_books <- head(books)
head_books <- books[1:6, ]

Dollar sign

The dollar sign $ is used to distinguish a specific variable (column, in Excel-speak) in a data frame:

R

head(books$X245.ab)  # print the first six book titles

OUTPUT

[1] "Bermuda Triangle /"                                                                  
[2] "Invaders from outer space :|real-life stories of UFOs /"                             
[3] "Down Cut Shin Creek :|the pack horse librarians of Kentucky /"                       
[4] "The Chinese book of animal powers /"                                                 
[5] "Judge Judy Sheindlin's Win or lose by how you choose! /"                             
[6] "Judge Judy Sheindlin's You can't judge a book by its cover :|cool rules for school /"

R

# print the mean number of checkouts
mean(books$TOT.CHKOUT)

OUTPUT

[1] 2.2847

unique(), table(), and duplicated()

Use unique() to see all the distinct values in a variable:

R

unique(books$BCODE2)

OUTPUT

 [1] "a" "w" "s" "m" "e" "4" "k" "5" "n" "o"

Take that one step further with table() to get quick frequency counts on a variable:

R

table(books$BCODE2)  # frequency counts on a variable

OUTPUT


   4    5    a    e    k    m    n    o    s    w 
   1    3 6983   68    3  109    2   21 1988  822 

You can combine table() with relational operators:

R

table(books$TOT.CHKOUT > 50)  # how many books have 50 or more checkouts?

OUTPUT


FALSE  TRUE 
 9991     9 

duplicated() will give you the a logical vector of duplicated values.

R

duplicated(books$ISN)  # a TRUE/FALSE vector of duplicated values in the ISN column
!duplicated(books$ISN)  # you can put an exclamation mark before it to get non-duplicated values
table(duplicated(books$ISN))  # run a table of duplicated values
which(duplicated(books$ISN))  # get row numbers of duplicated values

Exploring missing values


You may also need to know the number of missing values:

R

sum(is.na(books))  # How many total missing values?

OUTPUT

[1] 14509

R

colSums(is.na(books))  # Total missing values per column

OUTPUT

CALL...BIBLIO.        X245.ab         X245.c       LOCATION     TOT.CHKOUT 
           561             12           2801              0              0 
      LOUTDATE        SUBJECT            ISN   CALL...ITEM.  X008.Date.One 
             0             63           2934           7980            158 
        BCODE2         BCODE1 
             0              0 

R

table(is.na(books$ISN))  # use table() and is.na() in combination

OUTPUT


FALSE  TRUE 
 7066  2934 

R

booksNoNA <- na.omit(books)  # Return only observations that have no missing values

Exercise

  1. Call View(books) to examine the data frame. Use the small arrow buttons in the variable name to sort tot_chkout by the highest checkouts. What item has the most checkouts?

  2. What is the class of the TOT.CHKOUT variable?

  3. Use table() and is.na() to find out how many NA values are in the ISN variable.

  4. Call summary(books$TOT.CHKOUT). What can we infer when we compare the mean, median, and max?

  5. hist() will print a rudimentary histogram, which displays frequency counts. Call hist(books$TOT.CHKOUT). What is this telling us?

  1. Highest checkouts: Click, clack, moo : cows that type.

  2. class(books$TOT.CHKOUT) returns numeric

  3. table(is.na(books$ISN)) returns 2934 TRUE values

  4. The median is 0, indicating that, consistent with all book circulation I have seen, the majority of items have 0 checkouts.

  5. As we saw in summary(), the majority of items have a small number of checkouts

Logical tests


R contains a number of operators you can use to compare values. Use help(Comparison) to read the R help file. Note that two equal signs (==) are used for evaluating equality (because one equals sign (=) is used for assigning variables).

operator function
< Less Than
> Greater Than
== Equal To
<= Less Than or Equal To
>= Greater Than or Equal To
!= Not Equal To
%in% Has a Match In
is.na() Is NA
!is.na() Is Not NA

Sometimes you need to do multiple logical tests (think Boolean logic). Use help(Logic) to read the help file.

operator function
& boolean AND
` `
! Boolean NOT
any() Are some values true?
all() Are all values true?

Key Points

  • Use read.csv to read tabular data in R.
  • Use factors to represent categorical data in R.

Content from Data cleaning & transformation with dplyr


Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 80 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I select specific rows and/or columns from a data frame?
  • How can I combine multiple commands into a single command?
  • How can create new columns or remove existing columns from a data frame?
  • How can I reformat a dataframe to meet my needs?

Objectives

  • Describe the purpose of an R package and the dplyr and tidyr packages.
  • Select certain columns in a data frame with the dplyr function select.
  • Select certain rows in a data frame according to filtering conditions with the dplyr function filter.
  • Link the output of one dplyr function to the input of another function with the ‘pipe’ operator %>%.
  • Add new columns to a data frame that are functions of existing columns with mutate.
  • Use the split-apply-combine concept for data analysis.
  • Use summarize, group_by, and count to split a data frame into groups of observations, apply a summary statistics for each group, and then combine the results.
  • Describe the concept of a wide and a long table format and for which purpose those formats are useful.
  • Describe what key-value pairs are.
  • Reshape a data frame from long to wide format and back with the pivot_wider and pivot_longer commands from the tidyr package.
  • Export a data frame to a csv file.

Getting set up

Open your R Project file

If you have not already done so, open your R Project file (library_carpentry.Rproj) created in the Before We Start lesson.

If you did not complete that step then do the following:

  • Under the File menu, click on New project, choose New directory, then New project
  • Enter the name library_carpentry for this new folder (or “directory”). This will be your working directory for the rest of the day.
  • Click on Create project
  • Create a new file where we will type our scripts. Go to File > New File > R script. Click the save icon on your toolbar and save your script as “script.R”.
  • Copy and paste the below lines of code to create three new subdirectories and download the data:

R

library(fs)   # https://fs.r-lib.org/.  fs is a cross-platform, uniform interface to file system operations via R.
dir_create("data")
dir_create("data_output")
dir_create("fig_output")
download.file("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/22031487",
              "data/books.csv", mode = "wb")

Load the tidyverse and data frame into your R session

Load the tidyverse

R

library(tidyverse)

OUTPUT

── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.1.2     ✔ purrr     1.0.1
✔ forcats   1.0.0     ✔ stringr   1.5.0
✔ ggplot2   3.4.2     ✔ tibble    3.2.1
✔ lubridate 1.9.2     ✔ tidyr     1.3.0
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors

And the books data we saved in the previous lesson.

R

books <- read_csv("data/books.csv")  # load the data and assign it to books

Transforming data with dplyr

We are now entering the data cleaning and transforming phase. While it is possible to do much of the following using Base R functions (in other words, without loading an external package) dplyr makes it much easier. Like many of the most useful R packages, dplyr was developed by data scientist http://hadley.nz/.

dplyr is a package for making tabular data manipulation easier by using a limited set of functions that can be combined to extract and summarize insights from your data. It pairs nicely with tidyr which enables you to swiftly convert between different data formats (long vs. wide) for plotting and analysis.

dplyr is also part of the tidyverse. Let’s make sure we are all on the same page by loading the tidyverse and the books dataset we downloaded earlier.

We’re going to learn some of the most common dplyr functions:

  • rename(): rename columns
  • recode(): recode values in a column
  • select(): subset columns
  • filter(): subset rows on conditions
  • mutate(): create new columns by using information from other columns
  • group_by() and summarize(): create summary statistics on grouped data
  • arrange(): sort results
  • count(): count discrete values

Renaming variables

It is often necessary to rename variables to make them more meaningful. If you print the names of the sample books dataset you can see that some of the vector names are not particularly helpful:

R

glimpse(books)  # print names of the books data frame to the console

OUTPUT

Rows: 10,000
Columns: 12
$ CALL...BIBLIO. <chr> "001.94 Don 2000", "001.942 Bro 1999", "027.073 App 200…
$ X245.ab        <chr> "Bermuda Triangle /", "Invaders from outer space :|real…
$ X245.c         <chr> "written by Andrew Donkin.", "written by Philip Brooks.…
$ LOCATION       <chr> "juv", "juv", "juv", "juv", "juv", "juv", "juv", "juv",…
$ TOT.CHKOUT     <dbl> 6, 2, 3, 6, 7, 6, 4, 2, 4, 13, 6, 7, 3, 22, 2, 9, 4, 8,…
$ LOUTDATE       <chr> "11-21-2013 9:44", "02-07-2004 15:29", "10-16-2007 10:5…
$ SUBJECT        <chr> "Readers (Elementary)|Bermuda Triangle -- Juvenile lite…
$ ISN            <chr> "0789454165 (hbk.)~0789454157 (pbk.)", "0789439999 (har…
$ CALL...ITEM.   <chr> "001.94 Don 2000", "001.942 Bro 1999", "027.073 App 200…
$ X008.Date.One  <chr> "2000", "1999", "2001", "1999", "2000", "2001", "2001",…
$ BCODE2         <chr> "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", …
$ BCODE1         <chr> "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", "j", …

There are many ways to rename variables in R, but the rename() function in the dplyr package is the easiest and most straightforward. The new variable name comes first. See help(rename).

Here we rename the X245.ab variable. Make sure you assign the output to your books value, otherwise it will just print it to the console. In other words, we are overwriting the previous books value with the new one, with X245.ab renamed to title.

R

# rename the . Make sure you return (<-) the output to your
# variable, otherwise it will just print it to the console
books <- rename(books,
                title = X245.ab)

Side note:

Where does X245.ab come from? That is the MARC field 245|ab. However, because R variables cannot start with a number, R automatically inserted an X, and because pipes | are not allowed in variable names, R replaced it with a period.

R

# rename multiple variables at once
books <- rename(books,
                author = X245.c,
                callnumber = CALL...BIBLIO.,
                isbn = ISN,
                pubyear = X008.Date.One,
                subCollection = BCODE1,
                format = BCODE2,
                location = LOCATION,
                tot_chkout = TOT.CHKOUT,
                loutdate = LOUTDATE,
                subject = SUBJECT)
books

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 10,000 × 12
   callnumber        title     author location tot_chkout loutdate subject isbn 
   <chr>             <chr>     <chr>  <chr>         <dbl> <chr>    <chr>   <chr>
 1 001.94 Don 2000   Bermuda … writt… juv               6 11-21-2… Reader… 0789…
 2 001.942 Bro 1999  Invaders… writt… juv               2 02-07-2… Reader… 0789…
 3 027.073 App 2001  Down Cut… by Ka… juv               3 10-16-2… Packho… 0060…
 4 133.5 Hua 1999    The Chin… by Ch… juv               6 11-22-2… Astrol… 0060…
 5 170 She 2000      Judge Ju… illus… juv               7 04-10-2… Childr… 0060…
 6 170.44 She 2001   Judge Ju… illus… juv               6 11-12-2… Conduc… 0060…
 7 220.9505 Gil 2001 A young … retol… juv               4 12-01-2… Bible … 0060…
 8 225.9505 McC 1999 God's Ki… retol… juv               2 08-06-2… Bible … 0689…
 9 292.13 McC 2001   Roman my… retol… juv               4 04-03-2… Mythol… 0689…
10 292.211 McC 1998  Greek go… retol… juv              13 11-16-2… Gods, … 0689…
# ℹ 9,990 more rows
# ℹ 4 more variables: CALL...ITEM. <chr>, pubyear <chr>, format <chr>,
#   subCollection <chr>

RenameCALL...ITEM.

  1. Use rename() to rename the CALL...ITEM. column to callnumber2. Remember to add the period to the end of the CALL...ITEM. value

R

books <- rename(books,
                callnumber2 = CALL...ITEM.)

Recoding values

It is often necessary to recode or reclassify values in your data. For example, in the sample dataset provided to you, the sub_collection (formerly BCODE1) and format (formerly BCODE2) variables contain single characters.

Screen capture of window that says 'Select Me' with categories like Archival collections and Reference
Sub-Collection (formerly BCODE1) export from Sierra
Screen capture of window that says 'Select Me' with items like 'Archives' and 'E-Book'
Format (formerly BCODE2) export from Sierra

You can do this easily using the recode() function, also in the dplyr package. Unlike rename(), the old value comes first here. Also notice that we are overwriting the books$subCollection variable.

R

# first print to the console all of the unique values you will need to recode
distinct(books, subCollection)

OUTPUT

FALSE # A tibble: 10 × 1
FALSE    subCollection
FALSE    <chr>        
FALSE  1 j            
FALSE  2 b            
FALSE  3 u            
FALSE  4 r            
FALSE  5 -            
FALSE  6 s            
FALSE  7 c            
FALSE  8 z            
FALSE  9 a            
FALSE 10 t

R

books$subCollection <- recode(books$subCollection,
                                      "-" = "general collection",
                                      u = "government documents",
                                      r = "reference",
                                      b = "k-12 materials",
                                      j = "juvenile",
                                      s = "special collections",
                                      c = "computer files",
                                      t = "theses",
                                      a = "archives",
                                      z = "reserves")
books

OUTPUT

FALSE # A tibble: 10,000 × 12
FALSE    callnumber        title     author location tot_chkout loutdate subject isbn 
FALSE    <chr>             <chr>     <chr>  <chr>         <dbl> <chr>    <chr>   <chr>
FALSE  1 001.94 Don 2000   Bermuda … writt… juv               6 11-21-2… Reader… 0789…
FALSE  2 001.942 Bro 1999  Invaders… writt… juv               2 02-07-2… Reader… 0789…
FALSE  3 027.073 App 2001  Down Cut… by Ka… juv               3 10-16-2… Packho… 0060…
FALSE  4 133.5 Hua 1999    The Chin… by Ch… juv               6 11-22-2… Astrol… 0060…
FALSE  5 170 She 2000      Judge Ju… illus… juv               7 04-10-2… Childr… 0060…
FALSE  6 170.44 She 2001   Judge Ju… illus… juv               6 11-12-2… Conduc… 0060…
FALSE  7 220.9505 Gil 2001 A young … retol… juv               4 12-01-2… Bible … 0060…
FALSE  8 225.9505 McC 1999 God's Ki… retol… juv               2 08-06-2… Bible … 0689…
FALSE  9 292.13 McC 2001   Roman my… retol… juv               4 04-03-2… Mythol… 0689…
FALSE 10 292.211 McC 1998  Greek go… retol… juv              13 11-16-2… Gods, … 0689…
FALSE # ℹ 9,990 more rows
FALSE # ℹ 4 more variables: callnumber2 <chr>, pubyear <chr>, format <chr>,
FALSE #   subCollection <chr>

Do the same for the format column. Note that you must put "5" and "4" into quotation marks for the function to operate correctly.

R

books$format <- recode(books$format,
                              a = "book",
                              e = "serial",
                              w = "microform",
                              s = "e-gov doc",
                              o = "map",
                              n = "database",
                              k = "cd-rom",
                              m = "image",
                              "5" = "kit/object",
                              "4" = "online video")

Subsetting dataframes

Subsetting using filter() in the dplyr package

In the last lesson we learned how to subset a data frame using brackets. As with other R functions, the dplyr package makes it much more straightforward, using the filter() function.

Here we will create a subset of books called booksOnly, which includes only those items where the format is books. Notice that we use two equal signs == as the logical operator:

R

booksOnly <- filter(books, format == "book") # filter books to return only those items where the format is books

You can also use multiple filter conditions. Here, the order matters: first we filter to include only books, then of the results, we include only items that have more than zero checkouts.

R

bookCheckouts <- filter(books,
                        format == "book",
                        tot_chkout > 0)

How many items were removed? You can find out functionally with:

R

nrow(books) - nrow(bookCheckouts)

OUTPUT

FALSE [1] 5733

You can then check the summary statistics of checkouts for books with more than zero checkouts. Notice how different these numbers are from the previous lesson, when we kept zero in. The median is now 3 and the mean is 5.

R

summary(bookCheckouts$tot_chkout)

OUTPUT

FALSE    Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
FALSE   1.000   2.000   3.000   5.281   6.000 113.000

If you want to filter on multiple conditions within the same variable, use the %in% operator combined with a vector of all the values you wish to include within c(). For example, you may want to include only items in the format serial and microform:

R

serial_microform <- filter(books, format %in% c("serial", "microform"))

Filtering withfilter()

  1. Use filter() to create a data frame called booksJuv consisting of format books and subCollection juvenile materials.

  2. Use mean() to check the average number of checkouts for the booksJuv data frame.

R

booksJuv <- filter(books,
               format == "book",
               subCollection ==  "juvenile")
mean(booksJuv$tot_chkout)

OUTPUT

[1] 10.41404

Selecting variables

The select() function allows you to keep or remove specific columns It also provides a convenient way to reorder variables.

R

# specify the variables you want to keep by name
booksTitleCheckouts <- select(books, title, tot_chkout)
booksTitleCheckouts

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 10,000 × 2
   title                                                              tot_chkout
   <chr>                                                                   <dbl>
 1 Bermuda Triangle /                                                          6
 2 Invaders from outer space :|real-life stories of UFOs /                     2
 3 Down Cut Shin Creek :|the pack horse librarians of Kentucky /               3
 4 The Chinese book of animal powers /                                         6
 5 Judge Judy Sheindlin's Win or lose by how you choose! /                     7
 6 Judge Judy Sheindlin's You can't judge a book by its cover :|cool…          6
 7 A young child's Bible /                                                     4
 8 God's Kingdom :|stories from the New Testament /                            2
 9 Roman myths /                                                               4
10 Greek gods and goddesses /                                                 13
# ℹ 9,990 more rows

R

# specify the variables you want to remove with a -
books <- select(books, -location)

# reorder columns, combined with everything()
booksReordered <- select(books, title, tot_chkout, loutdate, everything())

Ordering data

The arrange() function in the dplyr package allows you to sort your data by alphabetical or numerical order.

R

booksTitleArrange <- arrange(books, title)

# use desc() to sort a variable in descending order
booksHighestChkout <- arrange(books, desc(tot_chkout))
booksHighestChkout

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 10,000 × 11
   callnumber title author tot_chkout loutdate subject isbn  callnumber2 pubyear
   <chr>      <chr> <chr>       <dbl> <chr>    <chr>   <chr> <chr>       <chr>  
 1 E Cro 2000 Clic… by Do…        113 01-23-2… Cows -… 0689… E Cro 2000  2000   
 2 PZ7.W6367… The … by Da…        106 03-07-2… Pigs -… 0618… 398.2452 W… 2001   
 3 <NA>       Cook… Janet…        103 03-13-2… Cake -… 0152… E Ste 1999  1999   
 4 PZ7.D5455… Beca… Kate …         79 03-27-2… Dogs -… 0763… Fic Dic 20… 2000   
 5 PZ7.C6775… Upto… Bryan…         69 02-05-2… Harlem… 9780… E Col 2000  2000   
 6 <NA>       <NA>  <NA>           64 08-23-2… <NA>    <NA>  #1  ENC. C… <NA>   
 7 F379.N59 … Thro… Ruby …         63 11-01-2… Bridge… 0590… 920 Bri 19… 1999   
 8 PZ7.C9413… Bud,… Chris…         63 04-03-2… Runawa… 0385… Fic Cur 19… 1999   
 9 E Mar 1992 Brow… by Bi…         61 02-16-2… Color … 0805… E Mar 1992  1992   
10 PZ7.P338 … A ye… Richa…         47 03-26-2… Grandm… 0803… Fic Pec 20… 2000   
# ℹ 9,990 more rows
# ℹ 2 more variables: format <chr>, subCollection <chr>

R

# order data based on multiple variables (e.g. sort first by checkout, then by publication year)
booksChkoutYear <- arrange(books, desc(tot_chkout), desc(pubyear))

Creating new variables

The mutate() function allows you to create new variables. Here, we use the str_sub() function from the stringr package to extract the first character of the callnumber variable (the call number class) and put it into a new column called call_class.

R

booksLC <- mutate(books,
                  call_class = str_sub(callnumber, 1, 1))

There are two numbers because you must specify a start and an end value–here, we start with the first character, and end with the first character.

mutate() is also helpful to coerce a column from one data type to another. For example, we can see there are some errors in the pubyear variable–some dates are 19zz or uuuu. As a result, this variable was read in as a character rather than an integer.

R

books <- mutate(books, pubyear = as.integer(pubyear))

WARNING

Warning: There was 1 warning in `mutate()`.
ℹ In argument: `pubyear = as.integer(pubyear)`.
Caused by warning:
! NAs introduced by coercion

We see the error message NAs introduced by coercion. This is because non-numerical variables become NA and the remainder become integers.

Putting it all together with %>%

The Pipe Operator %>% is loaded with the tidyverse. It takes the output of one statement and makes it the input of the next statement. You can think of it as “then” in natural language. So instead of making a bunch of intermediate data frames and cluttering up your workspace, you can run multiple functions at once. You can type the pipe with Ctrl + Shift + M if you have a PC or Cmd + Shift + M if you have a Mac.

So in the following example, the books tibble is first called, then the format is filtered to include only book, then only the title and tot_chkout columns are selected, and finally the data is rearranged from most to least checkouts.

R

myBooks <- books %>%
  filter(format == "book") %>%
  select(title, tot_chkout) %>%
  arrange(desc(tot_chkout))
myBooks

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 6,983 × 2
   title                                      tot_chkout
   <chr>                                           <dbl>
 1 Click, clack, moo :|cows that type /              113
 2 The three pigs /                                  106
 3 Cook-a-doodle-doo! /                              103
 4 Because of Winn-Dixie /                            79
 5 Uptown /                                           69
 6 Through my eyes /                                  63
 7 Bud, not Buddy /                                   63
 8 Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? /         61
 9 A year down yonder /                               47
10 Wemberly worried /                                 43
# ℹ 6,973 more rows

Playing with pipes%>%

  1. Create a new data frame booksKids with these conditions:
  • filter() to include subCollection juvenile & k-12 materials and format books.
  • select() only title, call number, total checkouts, and publication year
  • arrange() by total checkouts in descending order
  1. Use mean() to check the average number of checkouts for the booksKids data frame.

R

booksKids <- books %>%
  filter(subCollection %in% c("juvenile", "k-12 materials"),
  format == "book") %>%
select(title, callnumber, tot_chkout, pubyear) %>%
arrange(desc(tot_chkout))
mean(booksKids$tot_chkout)

OUTPUT

[1] 9.336331

Split-apply-combine data analysis and the summarize() function

Many data analysis tasks can be approached using the split-apply-combine paradigm: split the data into groups, apply some analysis to each group, and then combine the results. dplyr makes this very easy through the use of the group_by() function.

The summarize() function

group_by() is often used together with summarize(), which collapses each group into a single-row summary of that group. group_by() takes as arguments the column names that contain the categorical variables for which you want to calculate the summary statistics.

So to compute the average checkouts by format:

R

books %>%
  group_by(format) %>%
  summarize(mean_checkouts = mean(tot_chkout))

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 10 × 2
   format       mean_checkouts
   <chr>                 <dbl>
 1 book                3.23   
 2 cd-rom              0.333  
 3 database            0      
 4 e-gov doc           0.0402 
 5 image               0.0275 
 6 kit/object          1.33   
 7 map                10.6    
 8 microform           0.00122
 9 online video        0      
10 serial              0      

Books and maps have the highest, and as we would expect, databases, online videos, and serials have zero checkouts.

Here is a more complex example:

R

books %>%
  filter(format == "book") %>%
  mutate(call_class = str_sub(callnumber, 1, 1)) %>%
  group_by(call_class) %>%
  summarize(count = n(),
            sum_tot_chkout = sum(tot_chkout)) %>%
  arrange(desc(sum_tot_chkout))

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 34 × 3
   call_class count sum_tot_chkout
   <chr>      <int>          <dbl>
 1 E            487           3114
 2 <NA>         459           3024
 3 H           1142           2902
 4 P            800           2645
 5 F            240           1306
 6 Q            333           1305
 7 B            426           1233
 8 R            193            981
 9 L            358            862
10 5             60            838
# ℹ 24 more rows

Let’s break this down step by step:

  • First we call the books data frame
  • We then pipe through filter() to include only books
  • We then create a new column with mutate() called call_class by using the str_sub() function to keep the first character of the call_number variable
  • We then group_by() our newly created call_class variable
  • We then create two summary columns by using summarize()
    • take the number n() of items per call_class and assign it to a column called count
    • take the the sum() of tot_chkout per call_class and assign the result to a column called sum_tot_chkout
  • Finally, we arrange sum_tot_chkout in descending order, so we can see the class with the most total checkouts. We can see it is the E class (History of America), followed by NA (items with no call number data), followed by H (Social Sciences) and P (Language and Literature).

Pattern matching

Cleaning text with the stringr package is easier when you have a basic understanding of ‘regex’, or regular expression pattern matching. Regex is especially useful for manipulating strings (alphanumeric data), and is the backbone of search-and-replace operations in most applications. Pattern matching is common to all programming languages but regex syntax is often code-language specific. Below, find an example of using pattern matching to find and replace data in R:

  1. Remove the trailing slash in the title column
  2. Modify the punctuation separating the title from a subtitle

Note: If the final product of this data will be imported into an ILS, you may not want to alter the MARC specific punctuation. All other audiences will appreciate the text normalizing steps.

Read more about matching patterns with regular expressions.

R

books %>%
  mutate(title_modified = str_remove(title, "/$")) %>%     # remove the trailing slash
  mutate(title_modified = str_replace(title_modified, "\\s:\\|", ": ")) %>%   # replace ' :|' with ': '
  select(title_modified, title)

OUTPUT

# A tibble: 10,000 × 2
   title_modified                                                          title
   <chr>                                                                   <chr>
 1 "Bermuda Triangle "                                                     Berm…
 2 "Invaders from outer space: real-life stories of UFOs "                 Inva…
 3 "Down Cut Shin Creek: the pack horse librarians of Kentucky "           Down…
 4 "The Chinese book of animal powers "                                    The …
 5 "Judge Judy Sheindlin's Win or lose by how you choose! "                Judg…
 6 "Judge Judy Sheindlin's You can't judge a book by its cover: cool rule… Judg…
 7 "A young child's Bible "                                                A yo…
 8 "God's Kingdom: stories from the New Testament "                        God'…
 9 "Roman myths "                                                          Roma…
10 "Greek gods and goddesses "                                             Gree…
# ℹ 9,990 more rows

Exporting data

Now that you have learned how to use dplyr to extract information from or summarize your raw data, you may want to export these new data sets to share them with your collaborators or for archival.

Similar to the read_csv() function used for reading CSV files into R, there is a write_csv() function that generates CSV files from data frames.

Before using write_csv(), we are going to create a new folder, data_output, in our working directory that will store this generated dataset. We don’t want to write generated datasets in the same directory as our raw data. It’s good practice to keep them separate. The data folder should only contain the raw, unaltered data, and should be left alone to make sure we don’t delete or modify it. In contrast, our script will generate the contents of the data_output directory, so even if the files it contains are deleted, we can always re-generate them.

In preparation for our next lesson on plotting, we are going to create a version of the dataset with most of the changes we made above. We will first read in the original, then make all the changes with pipes.

R

books_reformatted <- read_csv("./data/books.csv") %>%
  rename(title = X245.ab,
         author = X245.c,
         callnumber = CALL...BIBLIO.,
         isbn = ISN,
         pubyear = X008.Date.One,
         subCollection = BCODE1,
         format = BCODE2,
         location = LOCATION,
         tot_chkout = TOT.CHKOUT,
         loutdate = LOUTDATE,
         subject = SUBJECT,
         callnumber2 = CALL...ITEM.) %>%
  mutate(pubyear = as.integer(pubyear),
         call_class = str_sub(callnumber, 1, 1),
         subCollection = recode(subCollection,
                                "-" = "general collection",
                                u = "government documents",
                                r = "reference",
                                b = "k-12 materials",
                                j = "juvenile",
                                s = "special collections",
                                c = "computer files",
                                t = "theses",
                                a = "archives",
                                z = "reserves"),
         format = recode(format,
                         a = "book",
                         e = "serial",
                         w = "microform",
                         s = "e-gov doc",
                         o = "map",
                         n = "database",
                         k = "cd-rom",
                         m = "image",
                         "5" = "kit/object",
                         "4" = "online video"))

This chunk of code read the CSV, renamed the variables, used mutate() in combination with recode() to recode the format and subCollection values, used mutate() in combination with as.integer() to coerce pubyear to integer, and used mutate() in combination with str_sub to create the new varable call_class.

We now write it to a CSV and put it in the data/output sub-directory:

R

write_csv(books_reformatted, "./data_output/books_reformatted.csv")

Help with dplyr


Wrangling dataframes with tidyr


Key Points

  • Use the dplyr package to manipulate dataframes.
  • Use select() to choose variables from a dataframe.
  • Use filter() to choose data based on values.
  • Use group_by() and summarize() to work with subsets of data.
  • Use mutate() to create new variables.

Content from Data Visualisation with ggplot2


Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 115 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What are the components of a ggplot?
  • How do I create scatterplots, boxplots, and barplots?
  • How can I change the aesthetics (ex. colour, transparency) of my plot?
  • How can I create multiple plots at once?

Objectives

  • Produce scatter plots, boxplots, and time series plots using ggplot.
  • Set universal plot settings.
  • Describe what faceting is and apply faceting in ggplot.
  • Modify the aesthetics of an existing ggplot plot (including axis labels and color).
  • Build complex and customized plots from data in a data frame.

Getting set up


Set up your directories and data

If you have not already done so, open your R Project file (library_carpentry.Rproj) created in the Before We Start lesson.

If you did not complete that step then do the following. Only do this if you didn’t complete it in previous lessons.

  • Under the File menu, click on New project, choose New directory, then New project
  • Enter the name library_carpentry for this new folder (or “directory”). This will be your working directory for the rest of the day.
  • Click on Create project
  • Create a new file where we will type our scripts. Go to File > New File > R script. Click the save icon on your toolbar and save your script as “script.R”.
  • Copy and paste the below lines of code to create three new subdirectories and download the original and the reformatted books data:

R

library(fs)   # https://fs.r-lib.org/.  fs is a cross-platform, uniform interface to file system operations via R. 
dir_create("data")
dir_create("data_output")
dir_create("fig_output")
download.file("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/22031487",
              "data/books.csv", mode = "wb")
download.file("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/22051506",
              "data_output/books_reformatted.csv", mode = "wb")

Load the tidyverse and data frame into your R session

Load the tidyverse and the lubridate packages. lubridate is installed with the tidyverse, but is not one of the core tidyverse packages loaded with library(tidyverse), so it needs to be explicitly called. lubridate makes working with dates and times easier in R.

R

library(tidyverse)  # load the core tidyverse

OUTPUT

── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.1.2     ✔ purrr     1.0.1
✔ forcats   1.0.0     ✔ stringr   1.5.0
✔ ggplot2   3.4.2     ✔ tibble    3.2.1
✔ lubridate 1.9.2     ✔ tidyr     1.3.0
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors

R

library(lubridate)  # load lubridate

We also load the books_reformatted data we saved in the previous lesson. We’ll assign it to books2.

R

books2 <- read_csv("data_output/books_reformatted.csv")  # load the data and assign it to books

Plotting with ggplot2


Base R contains a number of functions for quick data visualization such as plot() for scatter plots, barplot(), hist() for histograms, and boxplot(). However, just as data manipulation is easier with dplyr than Base R, so data visualization is easier with ggplot2 than Base R. ggplot2 is a “grammar” for data visualization also created by Hadley Wickham, as an implementation of Leland Wilkinson’s Grammar of Graphics.

ggplot is a plotting package that makes it simple to create complex plots from data stored in a data frame. It provides a programmatic interface for specifying what variables to plot, how they are displayed, and general visual properties. Therefore, we only need minimal changes if the underlying data change or if we decide to change from a bar plot to a scatterplot. This helps in creating publication quality plots with minimal amounts of adjustments and tweaking.

ggplot2 functions like data in the ‘long’ format, i.e., a column for every dimension, and a row for every observation. Well-structured data will save you lots of time when making figures with ggplot2

ggplot graphics are built step by step by adding new elements. Adding layers in this fashion allows for extensive flexibility and customization of plots.

To build a ggplot, we will use the following basic template that can be used for different types of plots:

ggplot(data = <DATA>, mapping = aes(<MAPPINGS>)) +  <GEOM_FUNCTION>()
  • use the ggplot() function and bind the plot to a specific data frame using the data argument

When you run the ggplot() function, it plots directly to the Plots tab in the Navigation Pane (lower right). Alternatively, you can assign a plot to an R object, then call print()to view the plot in the Navigation Pane.

Let’s create a booksPlot and limit our visualization to only items in subCollection general collection, juvenile, and k-12, and filter out items with NA in call_class. We do this by using the | key on the keyboard to specify a boolean OR, and use the !is.na() function to keep only those items that are NOT NA in the call_class column.

R

# create a new data frame
booksPlot <- books2 %>%
  filter(subCollection == "general collection" | 
           subCollection == "juvenile" | 
           subCollection == "k-12 materials",
         !is.na(call_class))

ggplot2 ggplot2 functions like data in the ‘long’ format, i.e., a column for every dimension, and a row for every observation. Well-structured data will save you lots of time when making figures with ggplot2

ggplot graphics are built step by step by adding new elements. Adding layers in this fashion allows for extensive flexibility and customization of plots.

To build a ggplot, we will use the following basic template that can be used for different types of plots:

ggplot(data = <DATA>, mapping = aes(<MAPPINGS>)) +  <GEOM_FUNCTION>()

Use the ggplot() function and bind the plot to a specific data frame using the data argument.

R

ggplot(data = booksPlot)  # a blank canvas

Not very interesting. We need to add layers to it by defining a mapping aesthetic and adding geoms.

Define a mapping with aes() and display data with geoms


Define a mapping (using the aesthetic (aes()) function), by selecting the variables to be plotted and specifying how to present them in the graph, e.g. as x/y positions or characteristics such as size, shape, color, etc.

R

ggplot(data = booksPlot, mapping = aes(x = call_class)) # define the x axis aesthetic

Here we define the x axes, but because we have not yet added any geoms, we still do not see any data being visualized.

Data is visualized in the canvas with “geometric shapes” such as bars and lines; what are called geoms. In your console, type geom_ and press the tab key to see the geoms included–there are over 30. For example:

  • geom_point() for scatter plots, dot plots, etc.
  • geom_boxplot() for boxplots
  • geom_bar() for barplots
  • geom_line() for trend lines, time series, etc.

Each geom takes a mapping argument within the aes() call. This is called the aesthetic mapping argument. In other words, inside the geom function is an aes() function, and inside aes() is a mapping argument specifying how to map the variables inside the visualization. ggplot then looks for that variable inside the data argument, and plots it accordingly.

For example, in the below expression, the call_class variable is being mapped to the x axis in the geometric shape of a bar. In this example, the y axis (count) is not specified, nor is it a variable in the original dataset, but is the result of geom_bar() binning your data inside each call number class and plotting the bin counts (the number of items falling into each bin).

To add a geom to the plot use the + operator.

R

# add a bar geom and set call_class as the x axis
ggplot(data = booksPlot, mapping = aes(x = call_class)) +
  geom_bar()

We can see that there are about 1,500 books in the H class, 1,000 books in the P class, 700 books in the E class, etc. As we shall see, the number of E and F books are deceptively large, as easy books and fiction books both begin with E and are thus lumped into that category, though they are not of the E and F Library of Congress call number classification.

ggplottips

  • Anything you put in the ggplot() function can be seen by any geom layers that you add (i.e., these are universal plot settings). This includes the x- and y-axis mapping you set up in aes().
  • You can also specify mappings for a given geom independently of the mapping defined globally in the ggplot() function.
  • The + sign used to add new layers must be placed at the end of the line containing the previous layer. If, instead, the + sign is added at the beginning of the line containing the new layer, ggplot2 will not add the new layer and will return an error message.

Univariate geoms


“Univariate” refers to a single variable. A histogram is a univariate plot: it shows the frequency counts of each value inside a single variable. Let’s say we want to visualize a frequency distibution of checkouts in the booksPlot data. In other words, how many items have 1 checkout? How many have 2 checkouts? And so on.

R

ggplot(data = booksPlot, mapping = aes(x = tot_chkout)) +
  geom_histogram()

OUTPUT

`stat_bin()` using `bins = 30`. Pick better value with `binwidth`.

As we have seen in previous lessons, the overwhelming majority of books have a small amount of usage, so the plot is heavily skewed. As anyone who has done collection analysis has encountered, this is a very common issue. It can be addressed in two ways:

First, add a binwidth argument to aes(). In a histogram, each bin contains the number of occurrences of items in the data set that are contained within that bin. As stated in the documentation for ?geom_histogram, “You should always override this value, exploring multiple widths to find the best to illustrate the stories in your data.”

Second, change the scales of the y axes by adding another argument to ggplot:

R

ggplot(data = booksPlot) +
  geom_histogram(aes(x = tot_chkout), binwidth = 10) +
  scale_y_log10()

WARNING

Warning: Transformation introduced infinite values in continuous y-axis

WARNING

Warning: Removed 2 rows containing missing values (`geom_bar()`).

Notice the scale y axis now goes from 0-10, 10-100, 100-1000, and 1000-10000. This is called “logarithmic scale” and is based on orders of magnitude. We can therefore see that over 5,000 books (on the y axis) have between 0-10 checkouts (on the x axis), 1,000 books have 10-20 checkouts, and further down on the x axis, a handful of books have 60-70 checkouts, and a handful more have around 100 checkouts.

We can check this with table():

R

table(booksPlot$tot_chkout)

OUTPUT


   0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10   11   12   13   14   15 
2348  875  638  464  362  282  199  146  118   97   84   50   41   46   40   33 
  16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31 
  17   20   26   17   14   12    7   15    7    8    6    6    3    3    2    4 
  32   33   34   35   36   38   39   40   41   43   47   61   63   69   79  106 
   1    5    4    3    2    2    3    1    1    1    1    1    2    1    1    1 
 113 
   1 

ggplot has thus given us an easy way to visualize the distribution of checkouts. If you test this on your own print and ebook usage data, you will likely find something similar.

Changing the geom

This same exact data can be visualized in a couple different ways by replacing the geom_histogram() function with either geom_density() (adding a logarithmic x scale) or geom_freqpoly():

R

# create a density plot
ggplot(data = booksPlot) +
  geom_density(aes(x = tot_chkout)) +
  scale_y_log10() +
  scale_x_log10()

WARNING

Warning: Transformation introduced infinite values in continuous x-axis

WARNING

Warning: Removed 2348 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_density()`).

R

# create a frequency polygon
ggplot(data = booksPlot) +
  geom_freqpoly(aes(x = tot_chkout), binwidth = 30) +
  scale_y_log10()

WARNING

Warning: Transformation introduced infinite values in continuous y-axis

Bivariate geoms


Bivariate plots visualize two variables. Let’s take a look at some higher usage items, but first eliminate the NA values and keep only items with more than 10 checkouts, which we will do with filter() from the dplyr package and assign it to booksHighUsage

R

# filter booksPlot to include only items with over 10 checkouts
booksHighUsage <- booksPlot %>%
  filter(!is.na(tot_chkout),
                tot_chkout > 10)

We then visualize checkouts by call number with a scatter plot. There is still so much skew that I retain the logarithmic scale on the y axis with scale_y_log10().

R

# scatter plot high usage books by call number class
ggplot(data = booksHighUsage,
       aes(x = call_class, y = tot_chkout)) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_y_log10()

Again, notice the scale on the y axis. We can obseve a few items of interest here: No items in the D, J, M, and Z class have more than 30 checkouts. An item in the E class has the most checkouts with over 100, but, as noted above, this includes Easy books classified with E, not just items with Library of Congress E classification (United States history) an issue we’ll look at further down.

Just as with univariate plots, we can use different geoms to view various aspects of the data, which in turn reveal different patterns.

R

# boxplot plot high usage books by call number class
ggplot(data = booksHighUsage,
       aes(x = call_class, y = tot_chkout)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  scale_y_log10()

By adding points to a boxplot, we can have a better idea of the number of measurements and of their distribution. Here we set the boxplot alpha to 0, which will make it see-through. We also add another layer of geom to the plot called geom_jitter(), which will introduce a little bit of randomness into the position of our points. We set the color of these points to "tomato".

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = call_class, y = tot_chkout)) +
  geom_boxplot(alpha = 0) +
  geom_jitter(alpha = 0.5, color = "tomato") +
  scale_y_log10()

Notice how the boxplot layer is behind the jitter layer? What do you need to change in the code to put the boxplot in front of the points such that it’s not hidden?

Plotting Exercise

Boxplots are useful summaries, but hide the shape of the distribution. For example, if the distribution is bimodal, we would not see it in a boxplot. An alternative to the boxplot is the violin plot, where the shape (of the density of points) is drawn.

  • Replace the box plot with a violin plot; see geom_violin().

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = call_class, y = tot_chkout)) +
  geom_violin(alpha = 0) +
  geom_jitter(alpha = 0.5, color = "tomato")

WARNING

Warning: Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.

Plotting Exercise(continued)

  • Add color to the geom_jitter argument on your boxplot according to the item subCollection. Hint: If you get the error object 'subCollection' not found or invalid color name 'subCollection' then consider color as an aesthetic mapping.

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = call_class, y = tot_chkout)) +
geom_violin(alpha = 0) +
geom_jitter(alpha = 0.5, aes(color = subCollection)) +
scale_y_log10()

WARNING

Warning: Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.
Groups with fewer than two data points have been dropped.

Plotting Exercise(continued)

So far, we’ve looked at the distribution of checkouts within call number ranges. Try making a new plot to explore the distribution of checkouts within another variable.

  • Still using the booksHighUsage data, create a boxplot for tot_chkout for each subCollection. Overlay the boxplot layer on a jitter layer to show actual measurements. Keep the scale_y_log10 argument.

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = subCollection, y = tot_chkout)) +
 geom_boxplot(alpha = 0) +
 geom_jitter(alpha = 0.5, color = "tomato") +
 scale_y_log10()

Add a third variable


As we saw in that exercise, you can convey even more information in your visualization by adding a third variable, in addition to the first two on the x and y scales.

Add a third variable with aes()

We can use arguments in aes() to map a visual aesthetic in the plot to a variable in the dataset. Specifically, we will map color to the subCollection variable. Because we are now mapping features of the data to a color, instead of setting one color for all points, the color now needs to be set inside a call to the aes function. ggplot2 will provide a different color corresponding to different values in the vector. In other words, associate the name of the aesthetic (color) to the name of the variable (subCollection) inside aes():

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage,
       aes(x = call_class,
           y = tot_chkout,
           color = subCollection)) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_y_log10()

ggplot() automatically assigns a unique level of the aesthetic to each unique value of the variable (this is called scaling). Now we reveal indeed that youth materials make up a large number of high usage items in both the E and the P class.

Use fill() with geom_bar() to create a stacked bar plot to visualize frequency. Again, this reinforced the fact that most of the E and P classification are youth materials.

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = call_class)) +
  geom_bar(aes(fill = subCollection))

Stacked bar charts are generally more difficult to read than side-by-side bars. We can separate the portions of the stacked bar that correspond to each village and put them side-by-side by using the position argument for geom_bar() and setting it to “dodge”.

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = call_class)) +
  geom_bar(aes(fill = subCollection), position = "dodge")

The order of the classification scale is sorted for “library order.” The audience of library professionals typically prefer an alphabetical arrangement. However, the x-axis variable is actually categorical. Categorical data are easier to read when the bars are sorted by frequency. An easy way to sort by frequency is to use the fct_infreq() function from the forcats library.

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = fct_infreq(call_class))) +
  geom_bar()

Another visualization issue is labeling. In many cultures, long labels are easier to read horizontally. Our goal is to flip the x-axis and reorient the x-axis labels into a horizontal presentation. To accomplish this, flip the axis coordinates with the coord_flip() function. When we flip the axes it’s important to reverse the sorted categorical order. Do this with forcats::fct_rev().

R

ggplot(data = booksHighUsage, aes(x = fct_rev(fct_infreq(call_class)))) +
  geom_bar() +
  coord_flip()

Plotting time series data

Let’s calculate number of counts per year for each format for items published after 1990 and before 2002 in the booksHighUsage data frame created above.

First, we use the ymd() function from the lubridate package to convert our publication year into a POSIXct object. Pass the truncated = 2 argument as a way to indicate that the pubyear column does not contain month or day. This means 1990 becomes 1990-01-01. This will allow us to plot the number of books per year.

We will do this by calling mutate() to create a new variable pubyear_ymd.

R

booksPlot <- booksPlot %>%
  mutate(pubyear_ymd = ymd(pubyear, truncated = 2))  # convert pubyear to a Date object with ymd()

class(booksPlot$pubyear)  # integer

OUTPUT

[1] "numeric"

R

class(booksPlot$pubyear_ymd)  # Date

OUTPUT

[1] "Date"

Next we can use filter to remove the NA values and get books published between 1990 and 2003. Notice that we use the & as an AND operator to indicate that the date must fall between that range. We then need to group the data and count records within each group.

R

yearly_counts <- booksPlot %>%
  filter(!is.na(pubyear_ymd),
         pubyear_ymd > "1989-01-01" & pubyear_ymd < "2002-01-01") %>%
  count(pubyear_ymd, subCollection)

Time series data can be visualized as a line plot with years on the x axis and counts on the y axis:

R

ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
     geom_line()

Unfortunately, this does not work because we plotted data for all the sub-collections together. We need to tell ggplot to draw a line for each sub-collection by modifying the aesthetic function to include group = subCollection:

R

ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n, group = subCollection)) +
    geom_line()

We will be able to distinguish sub-collections in the plot if we add colors (using color also automatically groups the data):

R

ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n, color = subCollection)) +
  geom_line()

Add a third variable with facets

Rather than creating a single plot with side-by-side bars for each sub-collection, we may want to create multiple plots, where each plot shows the data for a single sub-collection. This would be especially useful if we had a large number of sub-collections that we had sampled, as a large number of side-by-side bars will become more difficult to read.

ggplot2 has a special technique called faceting that allows the user to split one plot into multiple plots based on a factor included in the dataset.

There are two types of facet functions:

  • facet_wrap() arranges a one-dimensional sequence of panels to allow them to cleanly fit on one page.
  • facet_grid() allows you to form a matrix of rows and columns of panels.

Both geometries allow to to specify faceting variables specified within vars(). For example, facet_wrap(facets = vars(facet_variable)) or facet_grid(rows = vars(row_variable), cols = vars(col_variable)).

Here we use facet_wrap() to make a time series plot for each subCollection

R

ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
    geom_line() +
    facet_wrap(facets = vars(subCollection))
Three line plots, one each for general collection, juvenile, and K-12 sub-collection materials, showing the relationship of count of books to publication year

We can use facet_wrap() as a way of seeing the categories within a variables. Look at the number of formats per sub-collection.

R

ggplot(data = books2, aes(x = fct_rev(fct_infreq(subCollection)))) +
  geom_bar() +
  facet_wrap(~ format, nrow = 2) +
  scale_y_log10() +
  coord_flip() +
  labs(x = "Library subcollection", y = "")

While this may not be the most beautiful plot, these kinds of exercises can be helpful for data exploration. We learn that there are books in all sub-collections; there are CD-ROMS, serials, images, and microforms in government documents, and so on. Exploratory plots visually surface information about your data that are otherwise difficult to parse. Sometimes they may not meet all the rules for creating beautiful data, but when you are simply getting to know your data, that’s OK.

Challenge

Use the books2 data to create a bar plot that depicts the number of items in each sub-collection, faceted by format. Add the scale_y_log10() argument to create a logarithmic scale for easier visibility. Add the following theme argument to tilt the axis text diagonal: theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 60, hjust = 1))

R

ggplot(data = books2, aes(x = subCollection)) +
geom_bar() +
facet_wrap(vars(format)) +
scale_y_log10() +
theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 60, hjust = 1))

ggplot2 themes


Usually plots with white background look more readable when printed. Every single component of a ggplot graph can be customized using the generic theme() function. However, there are pre-loaded themes available that change the overall appearance of the graph without much effort.

For example, we can change our graph to have a simpler white background using the theme_bw() function:

R

#
ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
  geom_line() +
  facet_wrap(facets = vars(subCollection)) +
  theme_bw()

In addition to theme_bw(), which changes the plot background to white, ggplot2 comes with several other themes which can be useful to quickly change the look of your visualization. The complete list of themes is available at https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/reference/ggtheme.html. theme_minimal() and theme_light() are popular, and theme_void() can be useful as a starting point to create a new hand-crafted theme.

The ggthemes package provides a wide variety of options. The ggplot2 extensions website provides a list of packages that extend the capabilities of ggplot2, including additional themes.

Customization


Take a look at the ggplot2 cheat sheet, and think of ways you could improve your plots.

For example, by default, the axes labels on a plot are determined by the name of the variable being plotted. We can change names of axes to something more informative than ‘pubyear_ymd’ and ‘n’ and add a title to the figure:

R

# add labels
ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
  geom_line() +
  facet_wrap(facets = vars(subCollection)) +
  theme_bw() +
    labs(title = "Number of High Usage Books per Year of Publication, by Sub-Collection",
        x = "Year of publication",
        y = "Number of books")

Note that it is also possible to change the fonts of your plots. If you are on Windows, you may have to install the extrafont package, and follow the instructions included in the README for this package.

You can also assign a theme to an object in your environment, and pass that theme to your plot. This can be helpful to keep your ggplot() calls less cluttered. Here we create a gray_theme :

R

# create the gray theme
gray_theme <- theme(axis.text.x = element_text(color = "gray20", size = 12, angle = 45, hjust = 0.5, vjust = 0.5),
                    axis.text.y = element_text(color = "gray20", size = 12),
                    text = element_text(size = 16),
                    plot.title = element_text(hjust = 0.5))

# pass the gray theme to a plot
ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
  geom_line() +
  facet_wrap(facets = vars(subCollection)) +
  gray_theme +
  labs(title = "Number of High Usage Books per Year of Publication, \n by Sub-Collection",
        x = "Year of publication",
        y = "Number of books")

Challenge

Use the booksPlot data to create a plot that depicts how the total number of checkouts changes based on year of publication.

First, create a data frame yearly_checkouts That meets the following conditions:

  • filter() to exclude NA values
  • filter() between “1989-01-01” and “2002-01-01”
  • group_by() the publication year (make sure to use the special Date pubyear value we created)
  • summarize() to create a new value checkouts_sum that represents the sum() of total checkouts per publication year

Then, create a ggplot that visualizes the sum of item checkouts by year of publication. Add one of the themes listed above.

R

yearly_checkouts <- booksPlot %>%
 filter(!is.na(pubyear_ymd),
        pubyear_ymd > "1989-01-01" & pubyear_ymd < "2002-01-01") %>%
 group_by(pubyear_ymd) %>%
 summarize(checkouts_sum = sum(tot_chkout))

ggplot(data = yearly_checkouts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = checkouts_sum)) +
 geom_line() +
 theme_bw()

Save and export


After creating your plot, you can save it to a file in your favorite format. The Export tab in the Plot pane in RStudio will save your plots at low resolution, which will not be accepted by many journals and will not scale well for posters.

Instead, use the ggsave() function, which allows you easily change the dimension and resolution of your plot by adjusting the appropriate arguments (width, height and dpi). We have been printing our plot output directly to the console. To use ggsave(), first assign the plot to a variable in your R environment, such as yearly_counts_plot.

Make sure you have the fig_output/ folder in your working directory.

R

yearly_counts_plot <- ggplot(data = yearly_counts, mapping = aes(x = pubyear_ymd, y = n)) +
  geom_line() +
  facet_wrap(facets = vars(subCollection)) +
  gray_theme +
  labs(title = "Number of High Usage Books per Year of Publication, \n by Sub-Collection",
        x = "Year of publication",
        y = "Number of books")

ggsave("fig_output/yearly_counts_plot.png", yearly_counts_plot, width = 15, height = 10)

Exercise

With all of this information in hand, please take another five minutes to either improve one of the plots generated in this exercise or create a beautiful graph of your own. Use the RStudio ggplot2 cheat sheet for inspiration. Here are some ideas:

Key Points

  • ggplot2 is a flexible and useful tool for creating plots in R.
  • The data set and coordinate system can be defined using the ggplot function.
  • Additional layers, including geoms, are added using the + operator.
  • Boxplots are useful for visualizing the distribution of a continuous variable.
  • Barplot are useful for visualizing categorical data.
  • Faceting allows you to generate multiple plots based on a categorical variable.