improvement ideas for annex_prepare / annex / annex_stats

[gabroko]

• [x] allow for multiple "Other" variables, e.g. Other1, Other2, etc.
• [ ] allow to include "variable addititonal information" in config file, e.g. to define "Other" variable directly there, and not manually afterwards in xlsx
• [ ] allow to define units (and possibly bounds) in the config file for Other

[retostauffer]

"Other" variables

I like the idea of allowing for Other1 , Other2 etc. to give room for custom information, and allow to set custom boundary checks in the config object.

Implementation

I've tried one approach which turned out to be very tricky, but have a second idea. What we could do is the following:

1. We define Other1, Other2, ... up to Other20 (@gabroko or how many you think are realistically needed).
2. This means I do not have to change the entire validation and all the checks.
3. We allow the user to specify $lower, $upper in the config if, and only if, the variable name is Other*.
4. I then need to figure out how to carry this information along as an attribute such that I can write it into the XLSX file (Definitions) table. This is used by annex_validation, no changes needed there and the boundaries are stored in the XLSX stats file, so one can check what the statistics are based on.

Units

We could do the same for $unit (for Other* variables only) and also write it into the stats XLSX file. What will not be possible is "automatic unit conversion" as this requires a specific set of rules (functions).

Additional information

Have not thought that trough yet, but when we can carry along $unit we can also carry along the additional information in the same way; that should work.

Would that work for you @gabroko ?

[gabroko]

Yes, that sounds perfect! I would think max 10 Other are enough. But no rush on that...