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Load in and merge data from multiple files into one data.table

Source: R/data_merger.R
data_merger.Rd

Reads all of the files of one type in a folder and stacks them into one data.table, adding a filename column to say where each row came from. It is a general function, but has some options for tidying up gorilla data.

Usage

data_merger(
  ending = "txt",
  contains = "",
  d = ",",
  h = TRUE,
  datafile = NULL,
  gorilla_clean = FALSE,
  gorilla_checkwideq = F,
  datafolder = NULL
)

Arguments

ending

The end of the file names, ie the file type. Default is "txt"; use "csv", "xlsx" or "xls" as needed.

contains

Text that must appear in the file name, eg "task". Default is "" which accepts any name.

d

The delimiter (separator) used in the data files. Default is a comma.

h

Do the data files have a header row of column names? Default TRUE.

datafile

One example file from the folder you want to read. If supplied, you will not be asked to choose a file.

gorilla_clean

If TRUE, discard a set of gorilla columns that are rarely needed (timestamps, device information, etc.) to make the data more manageable.

gorilla_checkwideq

For gorilla questionnaire data. If TRUE, files that turn out to be wide format questionnaire data are merged side by side (matched on Participant.Private.ID) rather than stacked.

datafolder

The folder containing the files. If given, this is used instead of datafile.

Value

A data.table of all of the files. If the data has a Reaction.Time column, a numeric copy of it called rt is added.

Details

You can either name the folder (datafolder) or give an example file from that folder (datafile). If you give neither, you will be asked to choose an example file, and the function will use all of the matching files in the same folder.

Files are picked out if their name contains the text in contains and ends with ending (upper and lower case are ignored; contains can be a regular expression). Empty files (4 bytes or less) and the temporary ~$ files that Excel makes are skipped. For Excel files, only the first sheet is read.

If files have different columns, the missing columns are filled with NA.

See also

data_merger_gorilla(), data_collator_gorilla()

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
all_csvs <- data_merger(ending = "csv", contains = "task", datafolder = "my_folder")
} # }