This package is a collection of simple R functions that I’ve either written or discovered over the years that I’ve found useful and like to re-use. In some cases, these functions are just thin wrappers around other functions but the syntax is easier for me to remember.

This is a work in progress.

To install, you need to have the devtools package on your system (if you don’t have it, install that with install.packages(“devtools”) ) and then run

devtools::install_github("smach/rmiscutils")

Some of the tasks that functions in this package accomplish:

Add a row to a dataframe with the format

 add_row(mydf, col1 = 4, col2 = 7, col3="A")

add_row

Add a row to a dataframe with the format

add_row_from_list(iris, list(5.1, 3.5, 1.4, 0.2, "setosa"))

add_row_from_list

Calculate percentages from selected data frame columns by row, and add new columns with that data. Designed for election results. add_pct_cols_to_dataframe

Calculate the statistical mode of a vector (which base R oddly does not do). mymode

Capitalizes the first letter of each word in a string. (Note: base R 3.2.0 subsequently included the tools::toTitleCase() function, but toinitialcap has the advantage of naming consistency with base R’s tolower and toupper). toinitialcap – to go along with base R’s tolower() and toupper(),

Convert all NA values in a data frame to zeroes. na2zero

Convert only NA values to zeroes in data frame columns that are numeric or integers. Uses for loops, so may be slow for large data frames. na2zero2

Convert character strings containing numbers with commas into numbers. numbers_with_commas

Convert a vector of character strings into an ordered factor, keeping the original order. Helpful if x-axis order is important when visualizing data. (Created before the forcats package). strings_to_ordered_factors

Create a frequency table sorted by descending frequency. (Would probably use a version of janitor::tabyl today) table_sorted

Find winning candidates in a spreadsheet or data frame of election results. elec_find_winner

Find winning (or other) streaks in a vector of data. This is a slightly modified function from Exploring Baseball Data with R. streaks

Open the file that allows you to edit the RStudio dropdown list of projects. edit_project_list()

Read a text file into an R variable as a single character string. read_textfile

Rename a single data frame column using format renamecol(mydf, oldcolname, newcolname) renamecol

Remove columns from a data frame where all values are NA. Useful when importing spreadsheets or CSV files where there are some empty columns. removecolsAllNA

Unload a package from current working session. Because it can be difficult to remember that detach("package:mypackagename", unload=TRUE) or unloadNamespace("mypackagename") are the opposites of library("mypackagename"). unlibrary

Write an object containing character string data to a text file. write_textfile

From a character string, return the value of an object with that name (there’s also string2varname, which does the reverse) varname2string

To see a complete list of available function and links to their help files, run

help(package = "rmiscutils")

Some of the package’s functions by function name:

add_pct_cols_to_dataframe – designed for election results, will calculate percentages from selected columns by row and add new columns with that data.

add_row – add a row to a dataframe with the format

 add_row(mydf, col1 = 4, col2 = 7, col3="A")

Thanks to Hadely Wickham for that function idea.

add_row_from_list – add a row to a dataframe with the format

add_row_from_list(iris, list(5.1, 3.5, 1.4, 0.2, "setosa"))

Thanks to Jennifer Bryan for that function idea.

edit_project_list – opens the file that controls RStudio’s dropdown project list.

mymode – calculates the statistical mode of a vector, which base R oddly does not do.

na2zero – turn all NA values in a data frame to zeroes.

na2zero2 – turns only NA values to zeroes in data frame columns that are numeric or integers. Uses for loops, so may be slow for large data frames.

number_with_commas – easily turn character strings containing numbers with commas into numbers.

read_textfile – read a text file into an R variable as a single character string.

renamecol – rename a single column in a dataframe using format renamecol(mydf, oldcolname, newcolname)

removecolsAllNA – remove columns from a data frame where all values are NA. Useful when importing spreadsheets or CSV files where there are some empty columns.

toinitialcap – to go along with base R’s tolower() and toupper(), capitalizes the first letter of each word in a string. Note: base R 3.2.0 now has tools::toTitleCase() function.

streaks – find winning (or other) streaks in a vector of data, slightly modified function from Exploring Baseball Data with R.

strings_to_ordered_factors – turn a vector of character strings into an ordered factor, keeping the original order. Helpful if x-axis order is important when visualizing data.

table_sorted – get frequency table sorted by frequency descending.

unlibrary – because it can be difficult to remember that detach(“package:mypackagename”, unload=TRUE) or unloadNamespace(“mypackagename”) are the opposites of library(“mypackagename”).

varname2string – takes string and returns value of an object with that name (there’s also string2varname, which does the reverse)

write_textfile – write an object containing character string data to a text file.

To see a complete list of available function and links to their help files, run

help(package = "rmiscutils")