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Describe a dataset or lookup table

Source: R/describe.R
gcd_describe.Rd

Everything about one dataset, lookup table or geometry dataset: what it holds, its source, years, detail levels, the columns that identify a row (the grain), its key metric, every filter, and the notes its data contract declares (limitations, series breaks, groups that must not be added up, and so on). Printing the result shows a readable summary.

Read the "Pick one value of" line: it names categorical columns with no total (such as grade_cluster), whose values must not be mixed in one summary. gcd_rows() returns every value of them unless you filter one.

The $filters table is also how to discover the filters that are not columns of the dataset: lookup-table attributes such as district_type, school_level, locale and demographic_category.

Usage

gcd_describe(name)

Arguments

name

A dataset, lookup table or geometry dataset name, such as "graduation_rate_4_year_cohort", "schools" or "school_attendance_zones". Names are unique across all three kinds.

Value

A gcd_description object: a named list with a print method. Components include name, kind ("table", "geometry" or "lookup"), title, summary, description, source, source_url, years (integer), year_gaps, detail_levels, default_detail, grain, key_metric, and:

  • $columns: the column dictionary, as gcd_columns() returns it by default (for a dataset, the joined name columns included).

  • $filters: a tibble of every filter parameter: param, kind (categorical, foreign_key, dimension_attribute, metric_bound, year, detail, ...), values (list-column of allowed values), multi_value, has_total, total_value, requires_single_value and nullable.

  • $notes: the contract's declarations that are present, each a tibble or a string: limitations, year_meaning, null_semantics, series_breaks, non_additive, partitions, pooled_rates, year_window, value_implications, pooled_min_count (and assignment_note for the zones).

  • $raw: the full parsed schema response.

See also

gcd_columns() for the column table alone; gcd_values() for the category values present under a filter; gcd_contract() for the formal contract.

Other describe a dataset: gcd_columns(), gcd_contract()

Examples

if (FALSE) { # interactive()
gcd_describe("graduation_rate_4_year_cohort")
gcd_describe("ccrpi_content_mastery")$filters
gcd_describe("schools")
}