Intro
Defining variable labels is a useful way to describe and document datasets. Unlike SPSS, which makes it very easy to define variable labels using the data editor, base R doesn't provide any function to define variable labels (as far as I know).
However, Daniel Luedecke's R package sjlablled fills this gap. Let's give an example.
Defining variable labels
First, we load the mtcars data frame and define variable labels for all of the 11 variables:
data(mtcars)
labs <- c("Miles/(US) gallon", "Number of cylinders", "Displacement (cu.in.)",
"Gross horsepower", "Rear axle ratio", "Weight (1000 lbs)", "1/4 mile time",
"V/S", "Transmission", "Number of forward gears", "Number of carburetors")
Assigning labels to variables
Second, we assign the variable labels to the variables of the mtcars data frame:
library(sjlabelled) mtcars <- set_label(mtcars, label = labs)
When we have a look at the mtcars data frame using RStudio's data viewer, we find the variable labels placed right underneath the variable names:
Moreover, we may as well save both variable names and labels into a data frame:
library(dplyr) # for data manipulation
library(knitr) # for printing tables
df <- get_label(mtcars) %>%
data.frame() %>%
rename_at(vars(1), funs(paste0('var.labs'))) %>%
mutate(var.names = colnames(mtcars))
kable(df, align = 'lc')
| var.labs | var.names |
|---|---|
| Miles/(US) gallon | mpg |
| Number of cylinders | cyl |
| Displacement (cu.in.) | disp |
| Gross horsepower | hp |
| Rear axle ratio | drat |
| Weight (1000 lbs) | wt |
| ¼ mile time | qsec |
| V/S | vs |
| Transmission | am |
| Number of forward gears | gear |
| Number of carburetors | carb |
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