Write a format catalog to the file system

The write.fcat function writes a format catalog to the file system. By default, the catalog will be written to the current working directory, using the variable name as the file name. These defaults can be overridden using the appropriate parameters. The catalog will be saved with a file extension of ".fcat".

write.fcat(x, dir_path = getwd(), file_name = NULL)

Arguments

x

The format catalog to write.

dir_path

The directory path to write the catalog to. Default is the current working directory.

file_name

The name of the file to save the catalog as. Default is the name of the variable that contains the catalog. The ".fcat" file extension will be added automatically.

Value

The full path of the saved format catalog.

See also

Other fcat: as.data.frame.fcat(), as.fcat(), as.fcat.data.frame(), as.fcat.fmt_lst(), as.fcat.list(), fcat(), is.fcat(), print.fcat(), read.fcat()

Examples

# Create format catalog
c1 <- fcat(num_fmt  = "%.1f",
           label_fmt = value(condition(x == "A", "Label A"),
                             condition(x == "B", "Label B"),
                             condition(TRUE, "Other")),
           date_fmt = "%d%b%Y")
#> # A user-defined format: 3 conditions
#>   Name Type Expression   Label Order
#> 1    x    U   x == "A" Label A    NA
#> 2    x    U   x == "B" Label B    NA
#> 3    x    U       TRUE   Other    NA
#> # A format catalog: 3 formats
#> - $num_fmt: type S, "%.1f"
#> - $label_fmt: type U, 3 conditions
#> - $date_fmt: type S, "%d%b%Y"
           
# Get temp directory
tmp <- tempdir()            
           
# Save catalog to file system
pth <- write.fcat(c1, dir_path = tmp)

# Read from file system
c2 <- read.fcat(pth)
#> # A format catalog: 3 formats
#> - $num_fmt: type S, "%.1f"
#> - $label_fmt: type U, 3 conditions
#> - $date_fmt: type S, "%d%b%Y"

# Use formats in the catalog
fapply(2, c1$num_fmt)
#> [1] "2.0"
# [1] "2.0"

fapply(c("A", "B", "C", "B"), c1$label_fmt)
#> [1] "Label A" "Label B" "Other"   "Label B"
# [1] "Label A" "Label B" "Other"   "Label B"

fapply(Sys.Date(), c1$date_fmt)
#> [1] "06Oct2025"
# [1] "07Jan2024"