Missing instructions for where the cats data frame comes from

[sandrabrosda]

I was helping with this R session and there was confusion where to get the cats data frame from or how to create it. Maybe it should be explained first how to create a data frame from scratch and then go into how to manipulate it. The missing command for the cats data frame could be cats <- data.frame(coat = c("calico", "black", "tabby"), weight = c(2.1, 5.0,3.2), likes_string = c(1, 0, 1))

Sandra

[naupaka]

Hi @sandrabrosda thanks for the note. The beginning of episode 4 has instructions for making this file in a text editor. Presumably this would go along with some discussion of the csv format. Creating the data frame directly in R would then obviate the need for the bit on read.csv().

However, I agree it is a bit odd to ask folks to create a csv by hand, since this this something they will almost never do in normal use. I think it might be reasonable to change this lesson to have the data frame created within R instead, with the code you included. Would you be willing to submit a PR for that change that I could review?

[sandrabrosda]

Hi Naupaka,

I’m happy to submit a PR for that change. However, I have to figure out how to do it first and I’m away for almost the rest of the month. But if you’re happy for me to do it next month I’ll do it.

Regards, Sandra

From: Naupaka Zimmerman [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Monday, 4 September 2017 11:50 AM To: swcarpentry/r-novice-gapminder r-novice-gapminder@noreply.github.com Cc: Sandra Brosda s.brosda@uq.edu.au; Mention mention@noreply.github.com Subject: Re: [swcarpentry/r-novice-gapminder] Missing instructions for where the cats data frame comes from (#307)

Hi @sandrabrosdahttps://github.com/sandrabrosda thanks for the note. The beginning of episode 4http://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-gapminder/04-data-structures-part1/ has instructions for making this file in a text editor. Presumably this would go along with some discussion of the csv format. Creating the data frame directly in R would then obviate the need for the bit on read.csv().

However, I agree it is a bit odd to ask folks to create a csv by hand, since this this something they will almost never do in normal use. I think it might be reasonable to change this lesson to have the data frame created within R instead, with the code you included. Would you be willing to submit a PR for that change that I could review?

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[naupaka]

Sure, no rush. There are some instructions for contributing, here. I'm also happy to help once you get to that point.

[missaugustina]

I used this lesson as my example lesson for the instructor training course. I used "download.file" in an R notebook then read.csv.

download.file(
  "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swcarpentry/r-novice-gapminder/gh-pages/_episodes_rmd/data/feline-data.csv", "cats_swcarp.csv")

cats <- read.csv("cats_swcarp.csv")

[naupaka]

@missaugustina you can also read csv directly from a URL if you like.

cats <- read.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swcarpentry/r-novice-gapminder/gh-pages/_episodes_rmd/data/feline-data.csv")

[missaugustina]

I don't recommend reading directly from the url for 2 reasons: 1) possible wifi issues and 2) a local copy ensures you know what version of the file you are working with.

[mfoos]

We just created this data.frame by hand in a workshop and generated some frustration because apparently if you create a csv that way, but don't follow it with a blank line, read.csv won't read it

[naupaka]

@mfoos do you think it would be better to just create the data frame directly and bypass the csv step?

[mfoos]

Yes - obviously reading csvs in is the most realistic, but for little examples like this, I hate to tempt the whitespace gods.

[cmaimone]

A related, but I think more serious, issue is in the Data Types section of Part 4, there's reference to a file data/feline-data_v2.csv that isn't created (or downloaded) before being referenced. However the initial creation of the cats data.frame is resolved, it should probably be applied to this part as well.

[naupaka]

Closed by #338