Edge case behavior of the function `order_cols`

[schmetti-kim]

Hello, I discovered that the function order_cols accepts and processes negative order values in the metacore, which should be rejected as they are not valid order values. I’m not sure how significant the impact of this behavior might be, so I am first creating this issue for your information.

reprex

library(metacore)
#> Attaching package `metacore`
#> 
#> As of metacore 0.3.0 the `keep` variable in the `ds_vars` table has been renamed to `mandatory`. Please see release documentation for details.
library(metatools)
library(dplyr)

load(metacore::metacore_example("pilot_ADaM.rda"))
data <- haven::read_xpt(metatools_example("adsl.xpt"))

# Modify ds_vars to have negative order(-10) for BMIBLGR1, which was originally 36th in the order
modified_ds_vars <- metacore$ds_vars %>%
  mutate(order = if_else(dataset == "ADSL" & variable == "BMIBLGR1", -10, order))

# Reconstruct metacore object with modified ds_vars
spec <- suppressWarnings(
  metacore::metacore(
    metacore$ds_spec,
    modified_ds_vars,
    metacore$var_spec,
    metacore$value_spec,
    metacore$derivations,
    metacore$codelist
  )
) %>%
  select_dataset("ADSL", verbose = "silent")

# Now the column BMIBLGR1 comes first, because it has the lowest(-10) order value in the spec.
# However, this is not the intended behavior as -10 is a negative number and hence not a valid order value.
order_cols(data, spec)
#> # A tibble: 254 × 51
#>    BMIBLGR1 STUDYID    USUBJID SUBJID SITEID SITEGR1 ARM   TRT01P TRT01PN TRT01A
#>    <chr>    <chr>      <chr>   <chr>  <chr>  <chr>   <chr> <chr>    <dbl> <chr> 
#>  1 25-<30   CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1015   701    701     Plac… Place…       0 Place…
#>  2 >=30     CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1023   701    701     Plac… Place…       0 Place…
#>  3 >=30     CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1028   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      81 Xanom…
#>  4 25-<30   CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1033   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      54 Xanom…
#>  5 25-<30   CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1034   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      81 Xanom…
#>  6 >=30     CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1047   701    701     Plac… Place…       0 Place…
#>  7 25-<30   CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1097   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      54 Xanom…
#>  8 <25      CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1111   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      54 Xanom…
#>  9 <25      CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1115   701    701     Xano… Xanom…      54 Xanom…
#> 10 <25      CDISCPILO… 01-701… 1118   701    701     Plac… Place…       0 Place…
#> # ℹ 244 more rows
#> # ℹ 41 more variables: TRT01AN <dbl>, TRTSDT <date>, TRTEDT <date>,
#> #   TRTDURD <dbl>, AVGDD <dbl>, CUMDOSE <dbl>, AGE <dbl>, AGEGR1 <chr>,
#> #   AGEGR1N <dbl>, AGEGR2 <chr>, AGEGR2N <dbl>, AGEU <chr>, RACE <chr>,
#> #   RACEN <dbl>, SEX <chr>, ETHNIC <chr>, SAFFL <chr>, ITTFL <chr>,
#> #   EFFFL <chr>, COMP8FL <chr>, COMP16FL <chr>, COMP24FL <chr>, DISCONFL <chr>,
#> #   DSRAEFL <chr>, DTHFL <chr>, BMIBL <dbl>, HEIGHTBL <dbl>, WEIGHTBL <dbl>, …

^{Created on 2026-02-02 with reprex v2.1.1}