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Read entity attribute information from attributes and factors metadata files, and document missing value codes

read_attributes.Rd

The read_attributes function reads an entity's attribute details from a "entity name"_attrs.yaml or "entity name"_attrs.csv file in the working directory - the details of which are incorporated into the EML metadata for that entity. If present in the working directory, factor metadata in a "entity name"_factors.yaml or "entity name"_factors.csv are read and incorporated into attribute metadata. NA, NaN, and user-provided missing value codes are documented for each variable if they exist.

Usage

read_attributes(
  entity_name,
  missing_value_code = NULL,
  entity_id = "data_entity"
)

Arguments

entity_name

(character) The quoted name of the data entity.

missing_value_code

(optional) (character) read_attributes will automatically document the presence of NA and NaN entries as missing values in the EML output. The user has the ability to identify an additional indicator of missing values (e.g., "-9999", "missing") if present.

entity_id

(character) Quoted identifier of the data object that is being described, this will usually be the name or hash of the data table (or otherwise) of which the attribute is associated.

Value

A entity of type EML attributes or list of attributes (for testing and debugging)

Details

The read_attributes function reads an entity's attribute details from a "entity name"_attrs.yaml or "entity name"_attrs.csv file in the working directory - the details of which are incorporated into the EML metadata for that entity. If present in the working directory, factor metadata in a "entity name"_factors.yaml or "entity name"_factors.csv are read and incorporated into attribute metadata. NA, NaN, and user-provided missing value codes are documented for each variable if they exist.

Note

The read_attributes function is specific to all data types _except_ rasters. A sister function read_raster_attributes addresses similar functionality for raster data.

Recent versions of the capeml package generate attribute and factor metadata files in yaml format; the read_attributes function will look also for attributes files in csv format to accommodate older projects.

The read_attributes function is intended primarily as a helper to other functions in the capeml ecosystem so is not meant to be called directly (but can be).

Missing value codes are not documented for geometry columns of spatial (sf) objects.