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Get list of variables used in a specific database/cycle

Source: R/mockdata_helpers.R
get_cycle_variables.Rd

Returns a data frame containing all variables that are available in a specified database/cycle, with their metadata and extracted raw variable names.

Usage

get_cycle_variables(cycle, variables, variable_details, include_derived = TRUE)

Arguments

cycle

Character string specifying the database/cycle (e.g., "cycle1", "cycle1_meds" for CHMS; "cchs2001", "cchs2017_p" for CCHS).

variables

Data frame from variables.csv containing variable metadata.

variable_details

Data frame from variable_details.csv containing detailed recoding specifications.

include_derived

Logical. Should derived variables be included? Default is TRUE.

Value

Data frame with columns:

  • variable - Harmonized variable name

  • variable_raw - Raw source variable name (extracted from variableStart)

  • label - Human-readable label

  • variableType - "Categorical" or "Continuous"

  • databaseStart - Which databases/cycles the variable appears in

  • variableStart - Original variableStart string (for reference)

Returns empty data frame if no variables found for the database/cycle.

Details

The function filters variables.csv by checking if the database/cycle appears in the databaseStart field (exact match), then uses parse_variable_start to extract the raw variable name from the variableStart field.

Important: Uses exact matching to avoid false positives (e.g., "cycle1" should not match "cycle1_meds").

Derived variables (those with "DerivedVar::" in variableStart) return NA for variable_raw since they require custom derivation logic.

See also

parse_variable_start

Other mockdata-helpers: apply_missing_codes(), apply_rtype_defaults(), extract_distribution_params(), extract_proportions(), generate_garbage_values(), get_raw_variables(), get_variable_details(), has_garbage(), make_garbage(), sample_with_proportions()

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Load metadata
variables <- read.csv("inst/extdata/variables.csv")
variable_details <- read.csv("inst/extdata/variable-details.csv")

# CHMS example
cycle1_vars <- get_cycle_variables("cycle1", variables, variable_details)

# CCHS example
cchs2001_vars <- get_cycle_variables("cchs2001", variables, variable_details)

# Exclude derived variables
cycle1_original <- get_cycle_variables("cycle1", variables, variable_details,
                                        include_derived = FALSE)
} # }