Discussion: a small utility function for printing well formatted data

[Melkiades]

I was wondering if it would be nice to transform the following afun into a utility function. It would be relatively easy. I wanted to ask @edelarua @ayogasekaram if you think it would be nice to have and if you have seen someone requesting this kind of feature (I think it is done like this in a couple of cases in tern).

library(dplyr)

# Making a fake data similar to question
cf <-function(x) {
    x <- as.character(x)
    sapply(x, function(xx) switch(xx,
                                  "n" = round(runif(1, 10, 30)),
                                  "Mean" = rnorm(1, 2, 1),
                                  NA))
}
df <- expand.grid(
    Group = c("m1", "p"),
    Analysis = c("An 1", "An 2"),
    Metric = c("n", "Mean")
) %>% 
    mutate(Value = cf(Metric)) %>% 
    print()

library(rtables)

# Dummy analysis function to represent the data in "Value"
# -> To understand the current solution please read these in this order:
#    * ?analyze
#    * ?additional_fun_params
#    * ?spl_context
special_afun <- function(x, .spl_context, .df_row){
    
    # Extract the labels for each "analysis"
    labs <- as.character(x)
    
    # Extract the column subset of data
    col_sbset <- .spl_context$cur_col_subset
    res_df <- .df_row[col_sbset[[length(col_sbset)]], ]
    
    # Extract the values following the right labels ("Metric" here)
    metric_order <- sapply(labs, function(x) which(x == res_df$Metric))
    res_lst <- as.list(res_df$Value[metric_order])
    names(res_lst) <- labs # to be safe: add the labels
    
    # Set custom formats
    res_fmt <- setNames(list("xx", "xx.x"), labs)
    
    # Returning the list of results for one column at a time
    in_rows(.list = res_lst, .formats = res_fmt)
}

basic_table() %>% 
    split_rows_by("Analysis") %>% 
    split_cols_by("Group") %>% 
    analyze("Metric", afun = special_afun) %>% 
    build_table(df)

[edelarua]

I think it's a good idea! I've gotten requests for direct printing of data into tables before.

[Melkiades]

I think it's a good idea! I've gotten requests for direct printing of data into tables before.

Ok so let's gather names for this analysis function! Do you think it should reside in tern instead of in rtables?