Iteration

Overview

Iteration allows us to tell R to work on a whole sets of things at once: multiple files, multiple columns, multiple whatever. This can save quite a bit of time. It also lets us to work on problems with dependence, where the decisions of each step depends on the result of the previous step.

For our worksheet today, we are going to be solving some annoyances of the past. I am going to walk you though modifying our pet_split() function from last week’s functions worksheet to make it even more generalizable.

The Data

We are going to be using class survey data for lab today. Please load it in using the following:

survey = readRDS(url("https://github.com/Adv-R-Programming/Adv-R-Reader/raw/main/class_survey.rds"))

A Refresher on our pet_split() Function

Recall from last week that our pet_split() function looked at the pets column in our survey dataframe, and tidy-ed up the column so that instead of having a single character with multiple pets in it, we had a dataframe with TRUE and FALSE for each pet type, along with “other.” You can see the finished function below:

pet_split = function(pet_vector) {
  
  # make new dataframe for output
  pet_output = data.frame(
  "id" = 1:length(pet_vector),
  "dog" = NA,
  "cat" = NA,
  "fish" = NA,
  "bird" = NA,
  "reptile" = NA,
  "rock" = NA,
  "none" = NA,
  "other" = NA)
  
  # get a binary for each known pet type
  pet_output$dog = grepl(pattern = "dog", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$cat = grepl(pattern = "cat", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$fish = grepl(pattern = "fish", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$bird = grepl(pattern = "bird", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$reptile = grepl(pattern = "reptile", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$rock = grepl(pattern = "rock", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_output$none = grepl(pattern = "none", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  
  # remove all known pets and clean remaining text
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "dog", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "cat", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "fish", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "bird", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "reptile", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "rock", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "none", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = ",", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  pet_vector = trimws(pet_vector)
  
  # Fill in "other"
  pet_output$other = pet_vector
  # Turn blanks into NAs
  pet_output[pet_output$other == "", "other"] = NA
  
  # return
  return(pet_output)
}

pet_split(pet_vector = survey$pets)

   id   dog   cat  fish  bird reptile  rock  none                    other
1   1 FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
2   2 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
3   3  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
4   4 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
5   5 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
6   6  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE   FALSE  TRUE FALSE                     <NA>
7   7 FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
8   8  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
9   9 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
10 10 FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
11 11 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
12 12 FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
13 13 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
14 14  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
15 15  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
16 16 FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
17 17 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
18 18 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
19 19 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE    TRUE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
20 20 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE  TRUE  TRUE                     <NA>
21 21 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
22 22 FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE                     <NA>
23 23 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE  TRUE                     <NA>
24 24 FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE   FALSE FALSE FALSE Robot Vacuum named Tobie

Now, that is cool, but we can make it better. Specifically, if we look at our survey dataframe, we have the exact same problem in our <DRINK>_days columns and the recreation column. By the end of this worksheet, our pet_split() function will work on any column with comma separated values.

Break it Down

Our first step is going to be writing the code to accomplish what we want, then we can package it as a function. I’ve gutted our pet_split() function below. We will be starting from that base and working to make it so that we never call for anything specific to pets in our code. For example, instead of coding all of the possibilities of pet (dog, cat, fish, bird, reptile, rock, none) inside the function itself, we want to write our code such that it can accept any list of possibilities as an argument and work from that.

# set up a psudo argument
pet_vector = survey$pets

# make new dataframe for output
pet_output = data.frame(
"id" = 1:length(pet_vector),
"dog" = NA,
"cat" = NA,
"fish" = NA,
"bird" = NA,
"reptile" = NA,
"rock" = NA,
"none" = NA,
"other" = NA)

# get a binary for each known pet type
pet_output$dog = grepl(pattern = "dog", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$cat = grepl(pattern = "cat", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$fish = grepl(pattern = "fish", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$bird = grepl(pattern = "bird", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$reptile = grepl(pattern = "reptile", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$rock = grepl(pattern = "rock", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_output$none = grepl(pattern = "none", x = pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)

# remove all known pets and clean remaining text
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "dog", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "cat", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "fish", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "bird", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "reptile", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "rock", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = "none", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = ",", pet_vector, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = trimws(pet_vector)

# Fill in "other"
pet_output$other = pet_vector
# Turn blanks into NAs
pet_output[pet_output$other == "", "other"] = NA

Arbitrary Output

The first step of our current code is to create a dataframe for our outputs. We still want to do that, but without us defining each possibility ourselves inside the function. Instead, we will provide a vector of possibilities, and have R iterate through those to make our columns. We can use a for() loop for that.

First, we’ll create a vector of our possibilities, in this case our pets:

possible_columns = c("dog", "cat", "fish", "bird", "reptile", "rock", "none")

Next, we need code to iterate through those possibilities, and create a dataframe from them. We’ll start with making what we know, a column for IDs which has as many rows as our intended input, pet_vector from above. Next, we will iterate through all possible options, and make a new column for each. Here I iterate through our possible_columns vector, and for each element (option in the loop) I create a column of NAs.

# make a base dataframe with rows for each of our cases.
pet_output = data.frame(
  "id" = 1:length(pet_vector)
  )

# iterate through all options and create a column with NAs for it
for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # make a new column with a character version of each possible option.
  pet_output[, as.character(option)] = NA
  
}

If we look at out output now, it is exactly the same as if we made each column ourselves, but now it is done by providing a vector of options. And we can change those options to whatever we want. This will come in handy later.

pet_output

   id dog cat fish bird reptile rock none
1   1  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
2   2  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
3   3  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
4   4  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
5   5  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
6   6  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
7   7  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
8   8  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
9   9  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
10 10  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
11 11  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
12 12  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
13 13  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
14 14  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
15 15  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
16 16  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
17 17  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
18 18  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
19 19  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
20 20  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
21 21  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
22 22  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
23 23  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA
24 24  NA  NA   NA   NA      NA   NA   NA

Test for Each Option

Our next step is to test for each possible option (in this case types of pets) and fill in the respective columns. We will use iteration here as well.

Using the same principle as above, iterate over each option in possible_columns and use grepl() to test if the pet appeared in that case. Fill the respective columns.

The following code will iterate through possible_columns and replace the pattern grepl() is looking for with each option. It will test for that option, and save the results in the corresponding column.

for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # fill dataframe iterativly.
  pet_output[ , option] = grepl(option, pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  
}

Remove the Known Options to Find “Other”

Once we have our “knowns” taken care of, we can work on the others. The process is nearly identical, just swap grepl() with gsub() and apply it to pet_vector like before.

Iterate over each option in possible_columns and use gsub() to remove all of our known possibilities (and commas) from pet_vector. You can then use trimws() to remove the extra spaces. Assign the remaining values to the “other” column of pet_output.

The following will remove all known possibilities, clean the remainder, and assign it to the ‘other’ column.

for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # remove all known options
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = option, pet_vector, replacement = '', ignore.case = TRUE)
  
}

# clear commas and whitespace
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = ',', pet_vector, replacement = '', ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = trimws(pet_vector)

# Fill in 'other'
pet_output$other = pet_vector
# Turn blanks into NAs
pet_output[pet_output$other == '', 'other'] = NA

Turn it Back into a Function

If we look at our code all together now, it looks like the following. If we run it, it will return the exact same thing as our old pet_split() function, but instead of each option being hand-coded by us, it knows how to work with any given vector of options and create our desired output.

# make dummy argument
pet_vector = survey$pets

# set all known options
possible_columns = c("dog", "cat", "fish", "bird", "reptile", "rock", "none")

# make a base dataframe with rows for each of our cases.
pet_output = data.frame(
  "id" = 1:length(pet_vector)
  )

# iterate through all options and create a column with NAs for it
for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # make a new column with a character version of each possible option.
  pet_output[, as.character(option)] = NA
  
}

# fill output df
for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # fill dataframe iterativly.
  pet_output[ , option] = grepl(option, pet_vector, ignore.case = TRUE)
  
}

# clear all know options
for(option in possible_columns){
  
  # remove all known options
  pet_vector = gsub(pattern = option, pet_vector, replacement = '', ignore.case = TRUE)
  
}

# clear commas and whitespace
pet_vector = gsub(pattern = ',', pet_vector, replacement = '', ignore.case = TRUE)
pet_vector = trimws(pet_vector)

# Fill in 'other'
pet_output$other = pet_vector
# Turn blanks into NAs
pet_output[pet_output$other == '' & !is.na(pet_output$other), 'other'] = NA

Convert our code back into a function, call the function comma_split().

comma_split = function(vector_to_split, possible_columns){
  
  # make a base dataframe with rows for each of our cases.
  output = data.frame(
    "id" = 1:length(vector_to_split)
    )
  
  # iterate through all options and create a column with NAs for it
  for(option in possible_columns){
    
    # make a new column with a character version of each possible option.
    output[, as.character(option)] = NA
    
  }
  
  # fill output df
  for(option in possible_columns){
    
    # fill dataframe iterativly.
    output[ , option] = grepl(option, vector_to_split, ignore.case = TRUE)
    
  }
  
  # clear all know options
  for(option in possible_columns){
    
    # remove all known options
    vector_to_split = gsub(pattern = option, vector_to_split, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
    
  }
  
  # clear commas and whitespace
  vector_to_split = gsub(pattern = ",", vector_to_split, replacement = "", ignore.case = TRUE)
  vector_to_split = trimws(vector_to_split)
  
  # Fill in "other"
  output$other = vector_to_split
  # Turn blanks into NAs
  output[output$other == "" & !is.na(output$other), "other"] = NA
  
  # return output
  return(output)
}

comma_split(vector_to_split = survey$pets,
          possible_columns = c("dog", "cat", "fish", "bird", "reptile", "rock", "none"))

Once you have the function created, try it on another column! Your output should match mine.

comma_split(vector_to_split = survey$tea_days,
          possible_columns = c("monday", "tuesday", "wednesday", "thursday", "friday", "saturday", "sunday"))

   id monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday other
1   1  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
2   2  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
3   3   TRUE    TRUE      TRUE    FALSE  FALSE     TRUE   TRUE  <NA>
4   4   TRUE    TRUE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE   TRUE  <NA>
5   5  FALSE    TRUE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
6   6  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
7   7  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
8   8  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
9   9   TRUE   FALSE     FALSE     TRUE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
10 10  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE     TRUE   TRUE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
11 11  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE     TRUE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
12 12  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
13 13   TRUE    TRUE      TRUE     TRUE   TRUE    FALSE   TRUE  <NA>
14 14   TRUE   FALSE     FALSE     TRUE  FALSE    FALSE   TRUE  <NA>
15 15  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
16 16  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE   TRUE     TRUE  FALSE  <NA>
17 17  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
18 18  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE   TRUE  <NA>
19 19  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
20 20  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
21 21   TRUE    TRUE      TRUE    FALSE   TRUE     TRUE   TRUE  <NA>
22 22  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
23 23  FALSE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>
24 24   TRUE   FALSE     FALSE    FALSE  FALSE    FALSE  FALSE  <NA>

While it now has a bit of an odd name, our function can now work on any column! It is hard to express how big of a deal that is. We now have a single general tool that can adapt itself to several situations. The input is arbitrary, as long as it is formatted the same way (values separated by commas), we can put anything through this function and get a nice tidy dataframe back. A whole new universe of possibilities just opened.

Try our function on some other columns in the survey dataframe!