Search and Examine Variables Across Survey Datasets

Search for variables across multiple survey datasets, examine variable properties (labels, values, missingness), and explore variable context within datasets. Useful for navigating complex survey data with many variables and understanding variable relationships and metadata.

surveysearch

Search and examine variables across survey datasets with ease.

Overview

surveysearch provides tools to navigate complex survey data with many variables. It helps you:

• Search for variables by name or label across datasets
• Examine variable properties including labels, values, and missingness patterns
• Explore variable context to understand survey structure and questionnaire flow

Installation

You can install the development version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("malo-raballand/surveysearch")

Usage

Search for variables

# Search for variables containing "education"
search_variables("educ")

# Store results for further analysis
results <- search_variables("income")
View(results)

Examine a variable

# Display detailed information about a variable
examine_variable("age", data = my_dataset)

# Get information without printing
info <- examine_variable("income", data = my_dataset, verbose = FALSE)

Show variable context

# See a variable's position in the survey with surrounding questions
show_variable_context("q501", data = my_dataset)

Functions

• search_variables() - Search for variables across datasets
• examine_variable() - Get detailed information about a specific variable
• show_variable_context() - View a variable's context within a dataset

Requirements

• R >= 3.5.0
• haven - for reading Stata, SPSS, and SAS files
• dplyr - for data manipulation
• tidyr - for tidying data

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Author

Malo Raballand (malo.raballand@sciencespo.fr)