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First px file

Source: vignettes/first-px-file.Rmd
first-px-file.Rmd

To create your first px file with pxmake, you can either start with an existing px file, or use a data set.

How to create a px file from a data set

All workflows in pxmake, starts the same way: by using the px() to create a px object. Here we are using the built in dataset population_gl.

library(pxmake)

population_gl |>
  head(10) |>
  print()
#>    gender   age year     n
#> 1    male   0-6 2004  3237
#> 2    male   0-6 2014  2950
#> 3    male   0-6 2024  2769
#> 4    male  7-16 2004  5085
#> 5    male  7-16 2014  4040
#> 6    male  7-16 2024  3865
#> 7    male 17-24 2004  3191
#> 8    male 17-24 2014  3614
#> 9    male 17-24 2024  2940
#> 10   male 25-64 2004 17328

To create the px object, simply pass the data set to the px() function.

x <- px(population_gl)

x is now a px object. The word object just means that the px file is stored in a specific format that all functions in the pxmake package uses.

Use px_save() to save the px object as a px file.

px_save(x, "population_gl.px")

Since we provided no metadata, px() added a minimal set of metadata, which is necessary for creating a valid px file.

The resulting px file can be seen below.

CHARSET="ANSI";
DECIMALS=0;
MATRIX="matrix";
SUBJECT-CODE="subject-code";
SUBJECT-AREA="subject-area";
TITLE="";
CONTENTS="contents";
STUB="gender","age";
HEADING="year";
VALUES("gender")="female","male";
VALUES("age")="0-6","17-24","25-64","65+","7-16";
VALUES("year")="2004","2014","2024";
UNITS="units";
CODES("gender")="female","male";
CODES("age")="0-6","17-24","25-64","65+","7-16";
CODES("year")="2004","2014","2024";
VARIABLECODE("gender")="gender";
VARIABLECODE("age")="age";
VARIABLECODE("year")="year";
VARIABLECODE("n")="n";
DATA=
3109 2644 2668
3003 3528 2862
13744 14397 15098
1630 2004 2616
5018 3979 3534
3237 2950 2769
3191 3614 2940
17328 16888 17231
1481 2238 3116
5085 4040 3865
;

How to create a px file from a px file

If you already have a px file, that you want to manipulate using pxmake, simple pass the path of the file, to the px() function.

x2 <- px("population_gl.px")

Just as with the dataset, x2 is now a px object and can be saved or modified using the other functions in pxmake.

Modifying a px object

The real fun starts when you start modifying the px object, using one of pxmake many built in functions.

In general, each px keyword has a corresponding function in pxmake. For example, to change the title of the px file, you can use the px_title() function.

x3 <- px_title(x, "Population in Greenland")

The px_title() function returns a new px object, with the title changed. The original px object is not modified.

x3 |>
  px_codepage("UTF-8") |> # Change file encoding  
  px_matrix("pop") |>
  px_contact("Johan Ejstrud") |>
  px_subject_code("GL") |>
  px_subject_area("Greenland") |>
  px_timeval("year") |>
  px_contents("Population in Greenland") |>
  px_units("People") |>
  px_note("See information about data: ?population_gl") |>
  px_last_updated(format(Sys.time(), "%Y%m%d %H:%M")) |>
  px_stub(c("age", "gender")) |> # Change order of STUB variables
  px_save("population_gl_modified.px")

The resulting px file can be seen below.

CHARSET="ANSI";
CODEPAGE="UTF-8";
DECIMALS=0;
MATRIX="pop";
SUBJECT-CODE="GL";
SUBJECT-AREA="Greenland";
TITLE="Population in Greenland";
CONTENTS="Population in Greenland";
STUB="age","gender";
HEADING="year";
VALUES("age")="0-6","17-24","25-64","65+","7-16";
VALUES("gender")="female","male";
VALUES("year")="2004","2014","2024";
UNITS="People";
TIMEVAL("year")=TLIST(A1),"2004","2014","2024";
CODES("age")="0-6","17-24","25-64","65+","7-16";
CODES("gender")="female","male";
CODES("year")="2004","2014","2024";
VARIABLECODE("age")="age";
VARIABLECODE("gender")="gender";
VARIABLECODE("year")="year";
VARIABLECODE("n")="n";
LAST-UPDATED="20241105 11:48";
CONTACT="Johan Ejstrud";
NOTE="See information about data: ?population_gl";
DATA=
3109 2644 2668
3237 2950 2769
3003 3528 2862
3191 3614 2940
13744 14397 15098
17328 16888 17231
1630 2004 2616
1481 2238 3116
5018 3979 3534
5085 4040 3865
;

Advanced use

See the other vignettes for more advanced use cases: - vignette("languages") - vignette("micro-files")