kdw.junk

Miscellaneous R functions Karl wanted to reuse. Inspired by kimisc.

For a similar grab-bag of Python and Stata scripts, see https://github.com/karldw/useful_scripts.

Installation

remotes ::install_github("karldw/kdw.junk")

Features

Where is my Dropbox / Box folder?

• box_home – Find Box
• dropbox_home – Find Dropbox

Are my data uniquely identified?

• is_id – Do variables uniquely ID rows? (Works with dplyr::select syntax for local and remote tables. For local tables, faster when data.table is installed.).
• ensure_id_vars – Ensure variables uniquely ID rows (works with dplyr::select syntax; useful in pipelines).

Plotting

• binscatter – Provide a command like binscatter in Stata, based on binsreg, but with a formula interface and plotting support for fixed effects.
• capture_plot_output – Like utils::capture.output(), when the expression would open a graphics device.
• configure_tikzDevice – Prepare to use tikzDevice
• save_plot – Save ggplot graphic with aspect ratio more appropriate for slides or letter paper (uses cairo_pdf for better graphics).
  • Offers a reproducible option to reset file timestamps.

Minor convenience functions

• auto_render – Render and automatically re-render rmd, md, or tex files.
• cite_attached_packages – Generate biblatex citations for the attached packages.
• clear_all – Delete everything in session.
• get_cores – Get number of cores available, with a reasonable max.
• get_os – Get current OS.
• install_lazy – Install packages if necessary.
• is.connection – Test if object is a connection.
• make_better_names – Improve a character vector of names.
• memory_limit – Set a memory limit (Linux and Windows only).
• month_to_quarter – Convert months to quarters.
• make_monthly – Convert date to monthly (day of month set to 1).
• rename_cols – Rename columns with a dict-like approach.
• st_union_intersection – Union intersecting sf geometries.
• stopif – Inverse of stopifnot.
• truncate_bytes – Truncate a string to a particular length in bytes (not very efficiently).
• winsorize – winsorize in a way that handles point masses.

Smooth out tidyverse bumps

• read_dta – Wrapper around haven::read_dta to fix hassles with attributes and factors.

US Holidays

Does what is says on the box.

• hol_christmas_day
• hol_columbus_day
• hol_daylight_saving
• hol_easter
• hol_george_washington_birthday
• hol_good_friday
• hol_inauguration_day
• hol_independence_day
• hol_labor_day
• hol_martin_luther_king_day
• hol_memorial_day
• hol_new_years_day
• hol_presidents_day
• hol_thanksgiving_day
• hol_us_federal_holidays
• hol_veterans_day

Postgres management conveniences

• explain_analyze
• pg_add_foreign_key
• pg_add_index
• pg_add_primary_key
• pg_vacuum

Old functions

Removed functions

• read_data – use rio::import() instead.
• lapply_parallel – use furrr::future_map() instead.
• lapply_bind_rows – use furrr::future_dfr() instead.

Hard-deprecated functions

• vec2string – you're better off using glue::glue() most of the time.
• make_join_safer – use safejoin instead.
  • Takes a dplyr::*_join function and return a new function that performs additional checks to avoid many-to-many merges
• merge_stata – use safejoin instead.
  • Defined a merge function that mirrored Stata's merge
• narrate – use rlang::inform() instead.
• update_packages – update packages and reinstall everything that depends on Rcpp when Rcpp is updated. Deprecated because that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.

Soft-deprecated functions

• felm_strict – Run lfe::felm() strictly.
  • Use fixest::feols() instead