sep.sppinfo {CTFS} | R Documentation

## Creates a Vector of Species Characteristics for each Tree in a Dataset

### Description

`sep.sppinfo` creates a vector of the same length as the input data file that contains a categorical value that can be found in the `bcispp.info` data file. This vector can be used with `mortality`, `growth`, `recruitment`, `abundance` and other functions to provide for dynamic rates for growth form, family, etc. This function can also be used as a template for writing other functions that use "table-lookup": using a key variable from the data file to look up the value of a column on a table file based on the row with the key variable value.

### Usage

    sep.sppinfo(census1, table.in, by.col = "grform")

### Arguments

`census1` | usually a tree data file which is a dataframe, but any object with a dim=NULL is also allowed
`table.in` | table file, must be a data.frame and is usually the species information file e.g. `bcispp.info`
`by.col` | the column name of the variable that is to be used for classifying the trees into groups.

### Details

The `table.in` file must contain a variable with the same name as a varible on the `\census1` file. The `table.in` file is composed of rows of species with information about each species, including growth form. The species name of the tree from the `census1` is used to locate a row in `table.in` and then the value returned is the column with the growth formm.

This function is usually used to create a vector of species names for each tree in a census file. However, it can also be used, usually within another function, to generate a vector of species from a vector of species names values. This usage can make such code much more simple as the cut function, labels and class limits are handled by `sep.spp.info`.

Note that this function can be used to extract any value from `bcispp.info` for grouping trees. More variables can be added to `bcispp.info` for grouping trees.

### Value

`sep.sppinfo` returns a vector of values. The mode of the value depends on what column is extracted from `table.in`.

### Author(s)

Pamela Hall

### See Also

`CTFS.utilities`, `CTFS.quadfunctions`, `CTFS.datafiles`

### Examples

    ## Not run:
    # 1. Default use of sep.sppinfo
    grform.vct <- sep.sppinfo(tst.bci90.full,bcispp.info)

    # 2. User defined column "family", then used as a split vector in
    growth()
    fam.vct <- sep.sppinfo(tst.bci90.full,bcispp.info,by="fam")
    growth.fam.out <- growth("tst.bci90.full",split1=fam.vct)

    # 3. Using a vector of species names
    grform1.vct <-sep.sppinfo(tst.bci90.full$sp,bcispp.info)

    ## End(Not run)

[Package CTFS version 1.00 Index]