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IDEMSInternational / R-Instat

A statistics software package powered by R
http://r-instat.org/
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Prepare > Column: Calculate > Duplicate Column #4305

Open Patowhiz opened 6 years ago

Patowhiz commented 6 years ago

@africanmathsinitiative/developers I find it odd to have Duplicate Column dialog under the Column:Calculate menu. The primary function of this dialogue is simply to create a duplicate of an existing column as a new column, why is under Column: Calculate ? I think duplicating a column is part of preparing a data frame. So having it under Prepare > Data Frame makes it consistent with its functionality. Or is duplicating a column kind of a calculation in statistics?

rdstern commented 6 years ago

There is a thin line here. But nothing in the Prepare > Data Frame changes the size of the data frame, i.e. adds now columns. And some packages don't have a Duplicate Column, because it is a trivial calculation, i.e. just calculate the new column as an existing one!

I am more confused between Calculate and Generate. If it were to move anywhere, then that's where I would put it - or amalgamate Calculate and Generate into a single sub-menu.

dannyparsons commented 6 years ago

Both sections are about preparing data frames for analysis. The distinction we wanted to make between Prepare > Data Frame and Prepare Column ... is that the first is operations at the level of the data frame e.g. sort, filter, setting hidden columns, and the second section is at the level of individual columns e.g. calculating new columns or modifying an existing column. So duplicate involves a single column so it's at the column level. I agree with Roger about the vagueness of Calculate/Generate we currently have.

Patowhiz commented 6 years ago

Thats well understood. Great distinction we have. I second @rdstern in moving it to Column:Generate

rdstern commented 6 years ago

Patrick has cleverly misinterpreted me as recommending a move to Column: Generate. For now I would prefer to keep it where it is, because I can alternatively do the same thing with the calculator. But I would be open to getting rid of Column: Calculate completely and moving the whole thing down to Column: Generate. If we do, then I would keep the existing order, with Calculations first - and on its own. Then the others in the same order as now, i.e. all those currently in Calculate before those currently in Generate.
Then I think Generate is a clearer (and more general word) than Calculate. So we have them both under Column: Generate.

But this needs more discussion and agreement before making that move.

Patowhiz commented 6 years ago

@africanmathsinitiative/developers what are your suggestions on this .