Package {dfeR}

Type:	Package
Title:	Common Department for Education Analysis Tasks
Version:	2.0.0
Description:	Provides preferred methods for common analytical tasks undertaken across the Department for Education in England, including number formatting, project templates and curated reference data.
License:	GPL (≥ 3)
URL:	https://dfe-analytical-services.github.io/dfeR/, https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/dfeR
BugReports:	https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/dfeR/issues
Depends:	R (≥ 4.1.0)
Imports:	arrow, cli, DBI, dplyr, emoji, httr2, jsonlite, lifecycle, renv, rlang, rstudio.prefs, stringr, tidyselect, usethis, utils, withr
Suggests:	knitr, rmarkdown, spelling, testthat (≥ 3.1.7), mockery, ggplot2, purrr, scales
VignetteBuilder:	knitr
Config/testthat/edition:	3
Encoding:	UTF-8
Language:	en-GB
LazyData:	true
Config/roxygen2/version:	8.1.0
NeedsCompilation:	no
Packaged:	2026-09-23 17:29:49 UTC; camra
Author:	Cam Race [aut, cre], Department for Education, England [cph], Laura Selby [aut], Adam Robinson [aut], Jen Machin [ctb], Jake Tufts [ctb], Rich Bielby [ctb], Menna Zayed [ctb], Lauren Snaathorst [ctb], Lara Garbett [ctb], Paula Rocha [ctb]
Maintainer:	Cam Race <cameron.race@education.gov.uk>
Repository:	CRAN
Date/Publication:	2026-09-23 17:50:02 UTC

dfeR: Common Department for Education Analysis Tasks

Description

Provides preferred methods for common analytical tasks undertaken across the Department for Education in England, including number formatting, project templates and curated reference data.

Author(s)

Maintainer: Cam Race cameron.race@education.gov.uk

Authors:

• Cam Race cameron.race@education.gov.uk

• Laura Selby laura.selby@education.gov.uk

• Adam Robinson

Other contributors:

• Department for Education, England statistics.development@education.gov.uk [copyright holder]

• Jen Machin jen.machin@education.gov.uk [contributor]

• Jake Tufts jake.tufts@education.gov.uk [contributor]

• Rich Bielby richard.bielby@education.gov.uk (ORCID) [contributor]

• Menna Zayed menna.zayed@education.gov.uk [contributor]

• Lauren Snaathorst lauren.snaathorst@education.gov.uk [contributor]

• Lara Garbett lara.garbett@education.gov.uk [contributor]

• Paula Rocha paula.rocha@education.gov.uk [contributor]

See Also

Useful links:

• https://dfe-analytical-services.github.io/dfeR/

• https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/dfeR

• Report bugs at https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/dfeR/issues

Air Install

Description

checks for air installation status and installs it if required (or if the installed version is older than the minimum supported version), updating the global settings if selected

Usage

air_install(update_rstudio_settings = FALSE, verbose = TRUE, force = FALSE)

Arguments

Value

No return value, called for side effects

Examples

## Not run: 
air_install()

## End(Not run)

Air - style code in scripts

Description

styles the whole project or single file using air

Usage

air_style(target = ".", verbose = FALSE)

Arguments

Value

No return value, called for side effects

Examples

## Not run: 
air_style()

## End(Not run)

Check Databricks ODBC connection variables

Description

Checks if the required environment variables for connecting to Databricks are set, and if the odbc package version is sufficient.

Usage

check_databricks_odbc()

Details

Prints instructions for fixing common problems to the console.

Value

TRUE if the connection is set up correctly, FALSE otherwise.

See Also

Other databricks: write_df_to_delta()

Examples

check_databricks_odbc()

Check Git sslverify setting

Description

Checks the values of the SSL-verify settings in the global Git config. If they're set to false, the function flips them back to TRUE when called with clean = TRUE. By default it checks http.sslVerify and https.sslVerify.

Usage

check_git_sslverify(
  ssl_verify_vars = c("http.sslverify", "https.sslverify"),
  clean = FALSE
)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List of sslverify settings plus a status field.

Examples

check_git_sslverify()

Check the location of the global .gitconfig file

Description

Reports the location Git is using for its global config file. R, RStudio, and the system Git can disagree on this location (e.g. when HOME is redirected into OneDrive). The function flags non-standard locations and prints the resolved path so users can sanity-check it against the file they think they are editing.

Usage

check_gitconfig_location()

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object containing gitconfig_path (or NA if none found) plus a status field.

Examples

check_gitconfig_location()

Check GITHUB_PAT setting

Description

If the GITHUB_PAT system variable is set, it can cause issues with R installing packages from GitHub (usually with an error of "ERROR [curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 401]"). This function checks whether the variable is set and (with clean = TRUE) clears it for the current R session.

The function masks the PAT value both in console output and in the returned list (only its length and last four characters are shown). The raw value is never returned, so it is safe to share the result of diagnostic_test().

Usage

check_github_pat(clean = FALSE)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object containing GITHUB_PAT (masked: empty string when unset, otherwise "..." followed by the last four characters) plus a status field.

Examples

check_github_pat()

Check proxy settings

Description

Prior to the pandemic, analysts in the DfE would need to add proxy settings to either their Git configuration or system environment variables. These settings now prevent Git from connecting to remote archives on GitHub and Azure DevOps, so this function identifies them and (with clean = TRUE) removes them.

Both the Git configuration (keys http.proxy, https.proxy by default) and the system environment variables (http_proxy, https_proxy, no_proxy by default) are checked.

On Windows, clean = TRUE clears the matching environment variables permanently from your user environment (via setx) as well as from the current R session, so they do not come back the next time you start R. Windows only applies the change to new processes, so close and reopen RStudio afterwards.

Usage

check_proxy_settings(
  proxy_setting_names = c("http.proxy", "https.proxy"),
  proxy_env_names = c("http_proxy", "https_proxy", "no_proxy"),
  clean = FALSE
)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

A list with three slots: git (named list of detected Git-config proxy entries, or NULL), system (named list of detected environment-variable proxy entries, or NULL) and a status field.

Examples

check_proxy_settings()

Check RENV_DOWNLOAD_FILE_METHOD system variable

Description

The legacy proxy.R script used ⁠setx RENV_DOWNLOAD_FILE_METHOD wininet⁠ to route renv downloads through Windows wininet. This breaks renv outside the DfE network and is no longer needed. This function checks the RENV_DOWNLOAD_FILE_METHOD system environment variable and (with clean = TRUE) unsets it for the current R session.

On Windows, clean = TRUE also clears the variable permanently from your user environment (via setx), so it does not come back the next time you start R. Windows only applies the change to new processes, so close and reopen RStudio afterwards.

Usage

check_renv_dl_file_method(clean = FALSE)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object containing RENV_DOWNLOAD_FILE_METHOD plus a status field.

Examples

check_renv_dl_file_method()

Check renv download method

Description

The renv package can retrieve packages either using curl or wininet, but wininet doesn't work from within the DfE network. This function checks for the parameter controlling which of these is used (RENV_DOWNLOAD_METHOD) in the user's .Renviron and sets it to curl when called with clean = TRUE.

Usage

check_renv_download_method(renviron_file = "~/.Renviron", clean = FALSE)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object containing RENV_DOWNLOAD_METHOD (with surrounding whitespace and any wrapping quotes stripped, or NA if the variable is not set) plus a status field.

Examples

check_renv_download_method()

Check the location of .Renviron and .Rprofile

Description

Reports where R will read the user-level .Renviron and .Rprofile files from, listing every location R consults in precedence order: the R_ENVIRON_USER / R_PROFILE_USER override, the current working directory, and the home directory. Each file that exists is listed, and the one R actually uses is tagged, so you can spot when more than one copy exists (for example a project-level file shadowing the one in your home directory).

This check is purely informational and never reports a failure.

Usage

check_renv_rprof_location()

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object with a renviron and an rprofile entry (each a list of the used path and the found paths that exist), plus a status field which is always "info".

Examples

check_renv_rprof_location()

Check for an RTools / make toolchain

Description

Some R packages require compilation, which on Windows means RTools must be installed and on PATH. This function checks whether make is available via Sys.which("make"). It does not attempt to install RTools.

Usage

check_rtools()

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

List object containing rtools_make_path plus a status field. Missing RTools is reported as "info" rather than a failure because many users will not need to compile packages from source.

Examples

check_rtools()

Comma separate

Description

Adds separating commas to big numbers. If a value is not numeric it will return the value unchanged and as a string.

Usage

comma_sep(number, nsmall = 0L)

Arguments

Value

string

Examples

comma_sep(100)
comma_sep(1000)
comma_sep(3567000)

Lookup for valid country names and codes

Description

A lookup of ONS geography country names and codes, as well as some custom DfE names and codes. This is used as the definitive list for the screening of open data before it is published by the DfE.

Usage

countries

Format

countries

A data frame with 10 rows and 2 columns:

country_name

Country name

country_code

Country code

Source

curated by explore.statistics@education.gov.uk, ONS codes sourced from https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?q=countries%20names%20and%20codes

Creates a pre-populated project for DfE R

Description

Creates a pre-populated project for DfE R

Usage

create_project(
  path,
  init_renv = TRUE,
  include_structure_for_pkg = FALSE,
  create_publication_proj = FALSE,
  include_github_gitignore,
  ...
)

Arguments

Details

This function creates a new project with a custom folder structure. It sets up the ⁠R/⁠ folder and template function scripts, initializes {testthat} and adds tests for the function scripts, builds the core project structure, creates a .gitignore file, creates a readme, and optionally initializes {renv}.

Value

No return values, the project and its contents are created

Examples

## Not run: 

# Call the function to create a new project
dfeR::create_project(
  path = "C:/path/to/your/new/project",
  init_renv = TRUE,
  include_structure_for_pkg = FALSE,
  create_publication_proj = FALSE,
  include_github_gitignore = TRUE
)

## End(Not run)

Minimum supported Air version

Description

Air 0.10.0 changed the default assignment-style to "arrow", which affects the styled output that air_style() produces. Versions of Air older than this will silently produce different (older) formatting.

Usage

dfer_min_air_version

Shared parameters and return values for diagnostic helpers

Description

Internal documentation object that holds the parameters and return-value wording reused across diagnostic_test() and the ⁠check_*()⁠ helpers. It is not exported and is not intended to be called - it exists only as a single source of truth for roxygen2::roxygen2-package to inherit from via ⁠@inheritParams⁠ and ⁠@inherit⁠.

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Diagnostic testing

Description

Run a set of diagnostic tests to check for common issues found when setting up R on a DfE system. The function runs each ⁠check_*()⁠ helper in turn and returns a combined list of detected settings. Problems can optionally be fixed by passing clean = TRUE.

The checks include:

• Proxy settings in the Git configuration and system environment (check_proxy_settings())

• Git SSL-verify setting (check_git_sslverify())

• The location of the global .gitconfig file (check_gitconfig_location())

• The GITHUB_PAT system variable (check_github_pat())

• renv download method in .Renviron (check_renv_download_method())

• The RENV_DOWNLOAD_FILE_METHOD system variable (check_renv_dl_file_method())

• Presence of an RTools/make toolchain (check_rtools())

• The location of .Renviron and .Rprofile (check_renv_rprof_location())

Usage

diagnostic_test(clean = FALSE, full = FALSE)

Arguments

Details

Each check returns a list including a status field, one of "pass", "fail", "fixed" or "info", depending on the outcome of the check.

Value

Invisibly, a named list keyed by check (proxy, sslverify, gitconfig, github_pat, renv_download, renv_download_file, rtools, renviron_rprofile). Each entry is the result list returned by the corresponding ⁠check_*⁠ helper, plus a status field.

Examples

diagnostic_test()

Fetch Westminster parliamentary constituencies

Description

Fetch a data frame of all Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies for a given year and country based on the dfeR::geo_hierarchy file.

Usage

fetch_pcons(year = "All", countries = "All")

Arguments

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch countries

Description

Fetch a data frame of all countries based on the dfeR::countries file.

Usage

fetch_countries()

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_lads(), fetch_las(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_regions(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch local authority districts

Description

Fetch a data frame of all local authority districts for a given year and country based on the dfeR::geo_hierarchy file.

Usage

fetch_lads(year = "All", countries = "All")

Arguments

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_las(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_regions(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch local authorities

Description

Fetch a data frame of all local authorities for a given year and country based on the dfeR::geo_hierarchy file.

Usage

fetch_las(year = "All", countries = "All")

Arguments

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_lads(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_regions(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas lookup

Description

Fetch a data frame of Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas for a given year based on dfeR::lsip_lad.

Usage

fetch_lsips(year = "All")

Arguments

Value

data frame of LSIP for a given year.

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_lads(), fetch_las(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_regions(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch mayoral combined authorities

Description

Fetch a data frame of all mayoral combined authorities for a given year and country based on the dfeR::geo_hierarchy file.

Usage

fetch_mayoral(year = "All")

Arguments

Details

Note that mayoral combined authorities only exist for England.

Mayoral combined authorities are also known as English Devolved Areas, as we add in the Greater London Authority to the combined authority lookup published by ONS.

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_lads(), fetch_las(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_regions(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch Westminster constituency to MP lookup

Description

Fetch a data frame with one row per Westminster parliamentary constituency and the MP currently sitting for it. Alongside the constituency name and code, it gives the MP's name, Parliament member ID, party, email address and 2024 general election result summary, plus the local authority districts, local authorities, mayoral authorities, region and country that each constituency maps to.

Usage

fetch_mp_lookup(verbose = TRUE)

Arguments

Details

The lookup is maintained in the mp-lookup repository. It updates automatically as new results are published, and is read directly from its GitHub-hosted CSV so that users don't need to know or find the URL themselves.

Note that this is a lookup of sitting MPs, not a set of candidate-level results, so unsuccessful candidates are not included.

Value

data frame with one row per Westminster parliamentary constituency and its sitting MP

Examples

head(fetch_mp_lookup())

Fetch regions

Description

Fetch a data frame of all regions based on the dfeR::regions file.

Usage

fetch_regions()

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_lads(), fetch_las(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_wards()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Fetch wards

Description

Fetch a data frame of all wards for a given year and country based on the dfeR::geo_hierarchy file.

Usage

fetch_wards(year = "All", countries = "All")

Arguments

Value

data frame of unique location names and codes

See Also

Other fetch_locations: fetch_countries(), fetch_lads(), fetch_las(), fetch_lsips(), fetch_mayoral(), fetch_regions()

Examples

# Using head() to show only top 5 rows for examples
head(fetch_wards())

head(fetch_pcons())

head(fetch_pcons(2023))

head(fetch_pcons(countries = "Scotland"))

head(fetch_pcons(year = 2023, countries = c("England", "Wales")))

head(fetch_mayoral())

head(fetch_lsips())

head(fetch_lsips(2025))

fetch_lads(2024, "Wales")

fetch_las(2022, "Northern Ireland")

# The following have no specific years available and return all values
fetch_regions()
fetch_countries()

Format academic year

Description

This function formats academic year variables for reporting purposes. It will convert an academic year input from 201516 format to 2015/16 format.

Usage

format_ay(year)

Arguments

Details

It accepts both numerical and character arguments.

Value

Character vector of formatted academic years

See Also

Other format: format_ay_reverse(), format_fy(), format_fy_reverse()

Examples

format_ay(201617)
format_ay("201617")
format_ay(c(201617, 201718))

Undo academic year formatting

Description

This function converts academic year variables back into 201617 format.

Usage

format_ay_reverse(year)

Arguments

Details

It accepts character arguments.

Value

Character vector of unformatted 6 digit years

See Also

Other format: format_ay(), format_fy(), format_fy_reverse()

Examples

format_ay_reverse("2016/17")
format_ay_reverse(c("2016/17", "2017/18"))

Format financial year

Description

This function formats financial year variables for reporting purposes. It will convert an year input from 201516 format to 2015-16 format.

Usage

format_fy(year)

Arguments

Details

It accepts both numerical and character arguments.

Value

Character vector of formatted financial years

See Also

Other format: format_ay(), format_ay_reverse(), format_fy_reverse()

Examples

format_fy(201617)
format_fy("201617")
format_fy(c(201617, 201718))

Undo financial year formatting

Description

This function converts financial year variables back into 201617 format.

Usage

format_fy_reverse(year)

Arguments

Details

It accepts character arguments.

Value

Character vector of unformatted 6 digit years

See Also

Other format: format_ay(), format_ay_reverse(), format_fy()

Examples

format_fy_reverse("2016-17")
format_fy_reverse(c("2016-17", "2017-18"))

Geography hierarchy lookup

Description

A lookup showing the hierarchy of ward to Westminster parliamentary constituency to local authority district to local authority to combined mayoral authority to region to country for years 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Usage

geo_hierarchy

Format

geo_hierarchy

A data frame with 26,057 rows and 17 columns:

first_available_year_included

First year in the lookups that we see this location

most_recent_year_included

Last year in the lookups that we see this location

ward_name

Ward name

pcon_name

Parliamentary constituency name

lad_name

Local authority district name

la_name

Local authority name

english_devolved_area_name

Mayoral authority name

region_name

Region name

country_code

Country name

ward_code

9 digit ward code

pcon_code

9 digit westminster constituency code

lad_code

9 digit local authority district code

old_la_code

old 3 digit local authority code

new_la_code

9 digit local authority code

english_devolved_area_code

9 digit combined authority code

region_code

9 digit region code

country_code

9 digit country code

Details

Note that combined mayoral authorities only exist in England, and we use english_devolved_area_name and english_devolved_area_code to refer to mayoral authorities in line with the standards set in DfE official statistics. Greater London Authority is not included in the ONS combined authority lookup, we have added that in for all local authority districts with codes that start with E090....

Changes we've made to the original lookup:

1. The original lookup from ONS uses the Upper Tier Local Authority, we then update this so that where there is a metropolitan local authority we use the local authority district as the local authority to match how DfE publish data for local authorities.

2. We have noticed that in the 2017 version, the Glasgow East constituency had a code of S1400030 instead of the usual S14000030, we've assumed this was an error and have change this in our data so that Glasgow East is S14000030 in 2017.

3. We have joined on regions using the Ward to LAD to County to Region file.

4. We have joined on countries based on the E / N / S / W at the start of codes.

5. Scotland had no published regions in 2017, so given the rest of the years have Scotland as the region, we've forced that in for 2017 too to complete the data set.

6. We've added the Greater London Authority as the overarching mayoral authority (English devolved area) for all Local authority districts with codes that start E090....

Source

https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?tags=lup_wd_pcon_lad_utla https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?q=lup_wd_lad_cty_rgn_gor_ctry https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?tags=LUP_LAD_CAUTH https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Guidance/LaNameCodes and https://tinyurl.com/EESScreenerLAs

Potential names for geography and time columns

Description

Potential names for geography and time columns in line with the ones used for the explore education statistics data screener.

Usage

geog_time_identifiers

Format

geog_time_identifiers

A character vector with 38 potential column names in snake case format.

Source

curated by explore.statistics@education.gov.uk. Guidance on time and geography data.

Get the expected Air executable path for the current platform

Description

works out the platform-specific Air executable name and expected install location (in ⁠~/.local/bin/⁠), returning both alongside the resolved home directory and full path to the executable.

Usage

get_air_path()

Get the installed Air version

Description

returns the installed Air version as a numeric_version(), or NA if Air is not installed or its version cannot be determined.

Usage

get_air_version(air_path)

Arguments

Get a cleaned SQL script into R

Description

This function cleans a SQL script, ready for using within R in the DfE.

Usage

get_clean_sql(filepath, additional_settings = FALSE)

Arguments

Value

Cleaned string containing SQL query

Examples

# This assumes you have already set up a database connection
# and that the filepath for the function exists
# For more details see the vignette on connecting to SQL

# Pull a cleaned version of the SQL file into R
if (file.exists("your_script.sql")) {
  sql_query <- get_clean_sql("your_script.sql")
}

Fetch ONS Open Geography API data

Description

Helper function that takes a data set id and parameters to query and parse data from the ONS Open Geography API. Technically uses a POST request rather than a GET request.

Usage

get_ons_api_data(
  data_id,
  query_params = list(where = "1=1", outFields = "*", outSR = "4326", f = "json"),
  batch_size = 200,
  verbose = TRUE
)

Arguments

Details

It does a pre-query to understand the ObjectIds for the query you want, and then does a query to retrieve those Ids directly in batches before then stacking the whole thing back together to work around the row limits for a single query.

On the Open Geography Portal, find the data set you're interested in and then use the query explorer to find the information for the query.

This function has been mostly developed for ease of use for dfeR maintainers if you're interested in getting data from the Open Geography Portal more widely you should also look at the boundr package.

Value

parsed data.frame of geographic names and codes

Examples

# Fetch everything from a data set
dfeR::get_ons_api_data(data_id = "LAD23_RGN23_EN_LU")

# Specify the columns you want
dfeR::get_ons_api_data(
  "RGN_DEC_2023_EN_NC",
  query_params = list(
    where = "1=1",
    outFields = "RGN23CD,RGN23NM",
    outSR = 4326,
    f = "json"
  )
)

Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas to Local Authority District (LAD) Lookup

Description

A lookup table mapping Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas to Local Authority Districts (LADs) in England. This dataset provides a mapping between LSIP areas and LADs as provided by the ONS Geography Portal.

Usage

lsip_lad

Format

lsip_lad

A data frame with one row per LAD to LSIP pairing per lookup, currently 466 rows covering 298 LADs and 51 LSIP codes. As codes are reused for renamed areas, those 51 codes give 56 distinct code and name pairings, which is what fetch_lsips() returns. The columns are:

lsip_code

9-character code for the LSIP area

lsip_name

Name of the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) area

lad_code

9-character code for the Local Authority District

lad_name

Name of the Local Authority District

most_recent_year_included

The most recent year in which this location appears in the lookup

first_available_year_included

The first year in which this location appears in the lookup

Details

• Within a given year, each LAD is assigned to a single LSIP area. The LSIP a LAD belongs to can change between lookups though, so across the data set as a whole a LAD may appear against more than one LSIP area.

• Mappings may change over time and can be tracked using the most_recent_year_included and first_available_year_included columns.

• LSIP codes are not stable over time. A code can be kept but the area renamed (E69000001 was 'Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex' in 2023 and 'Sussex and Brighton' in 2025), and a name can be kept but the code changed ('North East' was E69000023 in 2023 and E69000045 in 2025). Joining on lsip_code alone across years will silently mismatch, so use lsip_code and lsip_name together to identify an area within a lookup.

• ONS have published LSIP lookups for 2023 and 2025 only, there was no 2024 lookup.

Source

https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?q=lad%20lsip

Lookup for ONS geography columns shorthands

Description

A lookup of ONS geography shorthands and their respective column names in line with DfE open data standards.

Usage

ons_geog_shorthands

Format

ons_geog_shorthands

A data frame with 10 rows and 3 columns:

ons_level_shorthands

ONS shorthands used in their lookup files

name_column

DfE names for geography name columns

code_column

DfE names for geography code columns

Details

GOR (Government Office Region) was the predecessor to RGN.

Source

curated by explore.statistics@education.gov.uk

Pretty numbers into readable file size

Description

Converts a raw file size from bytes to a more readable format.

Usage

pretty_filesize(filesize)

Arguments

Details

Designed to be used in conjunction with the file.size() function in base R.

Presents in kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes.

Shows as bytes until 1 KB, then kilobytes up to 1 MB, then megabytes until 1GB, then it will show as gigabytes for anything larger.

Rounds the end result to 2 decimal places.

Using base 10 (decimal), so 1024 bytes is 1,024 KB.

Value

string containing prettified file size

See Also

comma_sep() round_five_up()

Other prettying: pretty_num(), pretty_num_table(), pretty_time(), pretty_time_taken()

Examples

pretty_filesize(2)
pretty_filesize(549302)
pretty_filesize(9872948939)
pretty_filesize(1)
pretty_filesize(1000)
pretty_filesize(1000^2)
pretty_filesize(10^9)

Prettify big numbers into a readable format

Description

Uses as.numeric() to force a numeric value and then formats prettily for easy presentation in console messages, reports, or dashboards.

This rounds to 0 decimal places by default, and adds in comma separators.

Expect that this will commonly be used for adding the pound symbol, the percentage symbol, or to have a +/- prefixed based on the value.

If applying over multiple or unpredictable values and you want to preserve a non-numeric symbol such as "x" or "c" for data not available, use the ignore_na = TRUE argument to return those values unaffected.

If you want to customise what NA values are returned as, use the alt_na argument.

This function silences the warning around NAs being introduced by coercion.

Usage

pretty_num(
  value,
  prefix = "",
  gbp = FALSE,
  suffix = "",
  dp = 0,
  ignore_na = FALSE,
  alt_na = FALSE,
  nsmall = NULL,
  dynamic_dp_value = NULL,
  abbreviate = TRUE
)

Arguments

Value

string featuring prettified value

See Also

comma_sep() round_five_up() as.numeric()

Other prettying: pretty_filesize(), pretty_num_table(), pretty_time(), pretty_time_taken()

Examples

# On individual values
pretty_num(5789, gbp = TRUE)
pretty_num(564, prefix = "+/-")
pretty_num(567812343223, gbp = TRUE, prefix = "+/-")
pretty_num(11^9, gbp = TRUE, dp = 3)
pretty_num(-11^8, gbp = TRUE, dp = -1)
pretty_num(43.3, dp = 1, nsmall = 2)
pretty_num("56.089", suffix = "%")
pretty_num("x")
pretty_num("x", ignore_na = TRUE)
pretty_num("nope", alt_na = "x")
pretty_num(7.8e9, abbreviate = FALSE)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a billion value not divisible by 10
pretty_num(3e9, dynamic_dp_value = 2)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a billion value divisible by 10
pretty_num(10e9, dynamic_dp_value = 2)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a million value not divisible by 10
pretty_num(3e6, dynamic_dp_value = 3)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled for a million value divisible by 10
pretty_num(10e6, dynamic_dp_value = 3)
# dynamic_dp_value enabled with GBP and suffix
pretty_num(1.5e9,
  gbp = TRUE, suffix = "%",
  dynamic_dp_value = 1
)
#' # Applied over an example vector
vector <- c(3998098008, -123421421, "c", "x")
pretty_num(vector)
pretty_num(vector, prefix = "+/-", gbp = TRUE)

# Return original values if NA
pretty_num(vector, ignore_na = TRUE)

# Return alternative value in place of NA
pretty_num(vector, alt_na = "z")

Format a data frame with dfeR::pretty_num().

Description

You can format number and character values in a data frame by passing arguments to dfeR::pretty_num(). Use parameters include_columns or exclude_columns to specify columns for formatting.

Usage

pretty_num_table(data, include_columns = NULL, exclude_columns = NULL, ...)

Arguments

Details

The function first checks if any columns are specified for inclusion via include_columns. If none are provided, it checks if columns are specified for exclusion via exclude_columns. If neither is specified, all columns in the data frame are formatted.

Value

A data frame with columns formatted using dfeR::pretty_num().

Warning

Any selected column that cannot be coerced to numeric - including character columns such as geography or school names - is returned as NA by default. Pass ignore_na = TRUE (via ..., forwarded to dfeR::pretty_num()) to leave those values unchanged instead; this is the safe way to format a table that also contains non-numeric columns.

See Also

pretty_num()

Other prettying: pretty_filesize(), pretty_num(), pretty_time(), pretty_time_taken()

Examples

# Example data frame
df <- data.frame(
  a = c(1.234, 5.678, 9.1011),
  b = c(10.1112, 20.1314, 30.1516),
  c = c("A", "B", "C")
)

# Apply formatting to all columns - note column c is character, so it
# cannot be coerced to numeric and comes back as NA (see Warning section)
pretty_num_table(df, dp = 2)

# Apply formatting to all columns, leaving non-numeric columns like c
# unchanged instead of turning them into NA
pretty_num_table(df, dp = 2, ignore_na = TRUE)

# Apply formatting to only selected columns
pretty_num_table(df, include_columns = c("a"), dp = 2)

# Apply formatting to all columns except specified ones
pretty_num_table(df, exclude_columns = c("b"), dp = 2)

# Apply formatting to all columns except specified ones and
# provide alternative value for NAs
pretty_num_table(df, alt_na = "[z]", exclude_columns = c("b"), dp = 2)

Pretty time

Description

Convert seconds into a human readable format

Usage

pretty_time(seconds)

Arguments

Details

Recognises when to present as:

• seconds

• minutes and seconds

• hours, minutes and seconds

It will show seconds until 119 seconds, then minutes until 119 minutes, then hours. It doesn't do days or higher yet, but could be adapted to do so if there's demand.

Value

string containing the 'pretty' time

See Also

comma_sep() round_five_up() as.POSIXct()

Other prettying: pretty_filesize(), pretty_num(), pretty_num_table(), pretty_time_taken()

Examples

pretty_time(1)
pretty_time(8)
pretty_time(888)
pretty_time(88888888)
pretty_time(c(60, 2, 88, 88888888))

Calculate elapsed time between two points and present prettily

Description

Converts a start and end value to a readable time format.

Usage

pretty_time_taken(start_time, end_time)

Arguments

Details

Designed to be used with Sys.time() when tracking start and end times.

Shows as seconds up until 119 seconds, then minutes until 119 minutes, then hours for anything larger.

Input start and end times must be convertible to POSIXct format.

Value

string containing prettified elapsed time

See Also

comma_sep() round_five_up() as.POSIXct()

Other prettying: pretty_filesize(), pretty_num(), pretty_num_table(), pretty_time()

Examples

pretty_time_taken(
  "2024-03-23 07:05:53 GMT",
  "2024-03-23 12:09:56 GMT"
)

# Track the start and end time of a process
start <- Sys.time()
Sys.sleep(0.1)
end <- Sys.time()

# Use this function to present it prettily
pretty_time_taken(start, end)

Lookup for valid region names and codes

Description

A lookup of ONS geography region names and codes for England. In their lookups Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are regions.

Usage

regions

Format

regions

A data frame with 16 rows and 2 columns:

region_name

Region name

region_code

Region code

Details

Also included inner and outer London county split as DfE frequently publish those as regions, as well as some custom DfE names and codes. This is used as the definitive list for the screening of open data before it is published by the DfE.

Source

curated by explore.statistics@education.gov.uk, ONS codes sourced from https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/search?q=NAC_RGN

Round five up

Description

Round any number to a specified number of places, with 5's being rounded up.

Usage

round_five_up(number, dp = 0)

Arguments

Details

Rounds to 0 decimal places by default.

You can use a negative value for the decimal places. For example: -1 would round to the nearest 10 -2 would round to the nearest 100 and so on.

This is as an alternative to round in base R, which uses a bankers round. For more information see the round() documentation.

Value

Rounded number

Examples

# No dp set
round_five_up(2485.85)

# With dp set
round_five_up(2485.85, 2)
round_five_up(2485.85, 1)
round_five_up(2485.85, 0)
round_five_up(2485.85, -1)
round_five_up(2485.85, -2)

Controllable console messages

Description

Quick expansion to the message() function aimed for use in functions for an easy addition of a global verbose TRUE / FALSE argument to toggle the messages on or off

Usage

toggle_message(..., verbose)

Arguments

Value

No return value, called for side effects

Examples

# Usually used in a function
my_function <- function(count_fingers, verbose) {
  toggle_message("I have ", count_fingers, " fingers", verbose = verbose)
  fingers_thumbs <- count_fingers + 2
  toggle_message("I have ", fingers_thumbs, " digits", verbose = verbose)
}

my_function(5, verbose = FALSE)
my_function(5, verbose = TRUE)

# Can be used in isolation
toggle_message("I want the world to read this!", verbose = TRUE)
toggle_message("I ain't gonna show this message!", verbose = FALSE)

count_fingers <- 5
toggle_message("I have ", count_fingers, " fingers", verbose = TRUE)

Write a Data Frame to Delta Lake with COPY INTO

Description

This function writes a large R data frame or tibble (df) to a Delta Lake table (target_table) on Databricks using Databricks Volumes and the ⁠COPY INTO⁠ SQL command.

Usage

write_df_to_delta(
  df,
  target_table,
  db_conn,
  column_types_schema = NULL,
  volume_dir,
  copy_options = "'mergeSchema' = 'true'",
  overwrite_table = FALSE,
  chunk_size_bytes = 5 * 1024^3
)

Arguments

Details

The function performs the following steps:

• Optionally overwrites the target table.

• Uploads the data as Parquet file(s) to a specified Databricks Volume.

• Executes a ⁠COPY INTO⁠ command to load the file(s) into Delta Lake.

• Deletes the temporary file(s) from the Volume after loading is complete.

Data is chunked into segments during upload to accommodate the Databricks REST API limit of 5 GB per single file upload.

Value

Invisibly returns the result of the ⁠COPY INTO⁠ execution.

Note

To use this function, users must ensure that they have appropriate Databricks permissions:

• Catalog/schema: USE CATALOG on the target catalog and USE SCHEMA on the target schema.

• Table creation: CREATE TABLE on the target schema (if overwrite_table = TRUE) or MODIFY and SELECT on the existing table.

• Volume access: READ VOLUME and WRITE VOLUME on the Databricks Volume used for staging (specified in volume_dir).

Moreover, this function requires valid .Renviron variables for authentication, specifically DATABRICKS_TOKEN and DATABRICKS_HOST.

DATABRICKS_HOST may be supplied with or without a scheme. A bare host has ⁠https://⁠ prepended automatically, and ⁠http://⁠ is upgraded to ⁠https://⁠. Both ⁠adb-1234.cloud.databricks.com⁠ and ⁠https://adb-1234.cloud.databricks.com⁠ are accepted. A trailing slash is stripped if present.

See Also

Other databricks: check_databricks_odbc()

Examples

## Not run: 
# Setup connection using environment variables
con <- DBI::dbConnect(odbc::databricks(),
  httpPath = Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_SQL_PATH")
)

write_df_to_delta(
  df = my_data,
  target_table = "catalog.schema.my_table",
  db_conn = con,
  volume_dir = "/Volumes/catalog/schema",
  overwrite_table = TRUE
)

## End(Not run)

Replaces NA values in tables

Description

Replaces NA values in tables except for ones in time and geography columns that must be included in DfE official statistics. Guidance on our Open Data Standards.

Usage

z_replace(data, replacement_alt = NULL, exclude_columns = NULL)

Arguments

Details

Names of geography and time columns that are used in this function can be found in dfeR::geog_time_identifiers.

Value

table with "z" or an alternate replacement value instead of NA values for columns that are not for time or geography.

See Also

geog_time_identifiers

Examples

# Create a table for the example

df <- data.frame(
  time_period = c(2022, 2022, 2022),
  time_identifier = c("Calendar year", "Calendar year", "Calendar year"),
  geographic_level = c("National", "Regional", "Regional"),
  country_code = c("E92000001", "E92000001", "E92000001"),
  country_name = c("England", "England", "England"),
  region_code = c(NA, "E12000001", "E12000002"),
  region_name = c(NA, "North East", "North West"),
  mystery_count = c(42, 25, NA)
)

z_replace(df)

# Use a different replacement value
z_replace(df, replacement_alt = "c")