Extract categories from variable details

Extracts categorical values from variable_details recStart/recEnd columns. Handles range notation, special codes, and missing code patterns.

Usage

get_variable_categories(var_details, include_na = FALSE)

Arguments

var_details

Data frame. Filtered variable_details rows

include_na

Logical. Include NA/missing codes (default FALSE)

Value

Character vector of category values

Details

Handles recodeflow notation:

• Simple categories: "1", "2", "3"

• Integer ranges: "[7,9]" → c("7", "8", "9")

• Continuous ranges: "[18.5,25)" (kept as single value)

• Special codes: "copy", "else" (EXCLUDED from mock data generation)

• Missing codes: Identified by "NA" in recEnd

Note: "else" is excluded because it acts as a garbage collector in harmonization (recodes to NA::b), not a population category for generation.