contents {Hmisc} | R Documentation

## Metadata for a Data Frame

### Description

`contents` is a generic method for which `contents.data.frame` is currently the only method. `contents.data.frame` creates an object containing the following attributes of the variables from a data frame: names, labels (if any), units (if any), number of factor levels (if any), factor levels, class, storage mode, and number of NAs. `print.contents.data.frame` will print the results, with options for sorting the variables. `html.contents.data.frame` creates HTML code for displaying the results. This code has hyperlinks so that if the user clicks on the number of levels the browser jumps to the correct part of a table of factor levels for all the `factor` variables.

`contents.list` prints a directory of datasets when `sasxport.get` imported more than one SAS dataset.

### Usage

    contents(object, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'data.frame':
    contents(object, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'contents.data.frame':
    print(x,
        sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs'), prlevels=TRUE, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'contents.data.frame':
    html(object,  sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs'), prlevels=TRUE,
               file=paste('contents',object$dfname,'html',sep='.'),
               append=FALSE, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'list':
    contents(object, dslabels, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'contents.list':
    print(x,
        sort=c('none','names','labels','NAs','vars'), ...)

### Arguments

`object` | a data frame. For `html` is an object created by `contents`. For `contents.list` is a list of data frames.
`x` | an object created by `contents`
`sort` | Default is to print the variables in their original order in the data frame. Specify one of `"names"`, `"labels"`, or `"NAs"` to sort the variables by, respectively, alphabetically by names, alphabetically by labels, or by increaseing order of number of missing values. For `contents.list`, `sort` may also be the value `"vars"` to cause sorting by the number of variables in the dataset.
`prlevels` | set to `FALSE` to not print all levels of `factor` variables
`file` | file to which to write the html code. Default is `"conents.dfname.html"` where `dfname` is the name of the data frame processed by `contents`.
`append` | set to `TRUE` to add html code to an existing file
`...` | arguments passed from `html` to `format.df`, unused otherwise
`dslabels` | named vector of SAS dataset labels, created for example by `sasdsLabels`

### Value

an object of class `"contents.data.frame"` or `"contents.list"`

### Author(s)

Frank Harrell
Vanderbilt University
f.harrell@vanderbilt.edu

### See Also

`describe`, `html`

### Examples

    set.seed(1)
    dfr <- data.frame(x=rnorm(400),y=sample(c('male','female'),400,TRUE))
    contents(dfr)
    k <- contents(dfr)
    print(k, sort='names', prlevels=FALSE)
    ## Not run:
    html(k)
    html(contents(dfr))            # same result
    w <- html(k, file='my.html')   # create my.html, don't display
    ## End(Not run)

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