Check that assertions about a dataframe are true/false

This function allows you to test whether a set of assertions about a dataframe are true and to print the results of those tests. It is particularly useful for quality control and data validation.

Usage

check_that(.data, ..., print = TRUE, raise_error = TRUE, encourage = TRUE)

Arguments

.data: A dataframe to be tested.
...: One or more conditions to test on the dataframe. Each condition should be expressed as a logical expression that evaluates to a single TRUE or FALSE value (e.g., all(x < 3), !any(is.na(x))).
print: Logical. If TRUE, the results of the tests will be printed.
raise_error: Logical. If TRUE, an error will be thrown if any test fails. If FALSE, the evaluation will continue even if tests fail. Disabling errors can sometimes be useful for debugging, but should generally be avoided in finalized checks/tests.
encourage: Logical. If TRUE, encouraging messages will be displayed for tests that pass.

Value

(invisibly) the original, unmodified .data dataframe.

Details

The check_that() function is designed to work with both base R's existing logical functions, as well as several new functions provided in the checkthat package (see See Also below).

In addition, it also provides a data pronoun, .d. This is a copy of the .data dataframe provided as the first argument and is useful for testing not only features of specific rows or columns, but of the entire dataframe, see examples.

Examples

example_data <- data.frame(x = 1:5, y = 6:10)

# Test a dataframe for specific conditions
example_data |>
  check_that(
    all(x > 0),
    !any(y < 5)
  )
#> ✔ all data checks passing

# Use .d pronoun to test aspect of entire dataframe
example_data |>
  check_that(
    nrow(.d) == 5,
    "x" %in% names(.d)
  )
#> ✔ all data checks passing