Descriptive statistics for one or more variables

Computes basic descriptive statistics (N, non-missing, min, max, mean, SD) for one or more variables in a data frame. Prints a formatted table and invisibly returns the underlying results as a data frame.

Usage

jdesc(
  data,
  ...,
  by = NULL,
  subset = NULL,
  variable.id = NULL,
  numeric = NULL,
  categorical = NULL,
  count = NULL,
  value.id = NULL,
  case.processing.detail = NULL,
  digits = NULL
)

Arguments

data: A data frame, or a numeric vector.
...: Unquoted variable names within data (ignored if data is a vector).
by: An optional unquoted grouping variable name. When provided, descriptives are computed separately for each group, with a separate titled table per dependent variable.
subset: An optional unquoted logical expression (e.g. Group == 1) to subset cases for this call only. Applied after jcomplete and jsubset. Does not affect other function calls.
variable.id: Character or NULL. Variable label display mode: one of "both", "names", "labels", "legend", or "legend.bottom". "names" shows variable names only; "both" shows "name: label"; "labels" shows each variable's label in place of its name (in the descriptives table; for grouped output, as the per-variable caption and the grouping-variable column header) – best for short labels; "legend" and "legend.bottom" keep names and print a label legend after the table. NULL (default) defers to joutput()'s variable.id setting. Not a logical.
numeric: Optional character vector of variable names to treat as continuous for this call (the per-call counterpart of jnumeric()). Its only effect in jdesc() is to suppress the structural "seems categorical" descriptive caution for those variables; the descriptives themselves are computed the same way regardless.
categorical: Not supported by jdesc() yet. jdesc() always computes numeric descriptives; supplying categorical raises an error pointing to jfreq() for a categorical summary. (How jdesc() should handle an asserted-categorical variable is a parked design decision.)
count: Optional character vector of variable names to treat as counts for this call (the per-call counterpart of jcount()). A count is numeric-like here, so it behaves like numeric: it suppresses the "seems categorical" caution for those variables.
value.id: Character or NULL. Value-label display mode for the grouped descriptive headers (the by-group rows): "both" ("code: label"), "values" (bare code), or "labels" (the label, degrading to the bare code where a code has none). "legend" and "legend.bottom" keep the bare code in the table and print a value-label legend after it ("legend" per-table, "legend.bottom" consolidated where multiple tables are produced). A no-op for grouping variables with no value labels, and for ungrouped calls. NULL (default) defers to joutput()'s value.id setting. Not a logical.
case.processing.detail: Per-call override of the Case Processing Summary detail tier: one of "none", "totals", or "per_code". NULL (default) uses the active joutput() level default.
digits: Integer or NULL. Number of decimal places for continuous statistics in the output tables (range 0-7; digits = 0 prints whole numbers with no trailing decimal point). Does not affect p-values, percentages, or integer quantities (counts, N, degrees of freedom), which keep their own fixed conventions. NULL (default) defers to joutput()'s digits setting (default 3).

Value

Invisibly returns a list of class jst_desc containing: descriptives (data frame of statistics, or NULL for grouped output), and sample_info (pipeline and missing data counts). Also prints a formatted table to the console.

Details

Output is structured consistently with jfreq(): a red title is printed first, followed by a block showing the type and variable label (or "None" if no label is present) for each variable, then a single blank line before the table. For multiple variables, one type/label entry is printed per variable before the shared table.

Summarizes numeric, haven-labelled, logical, numeric-coded factor, and numeric-looking character variables. Variables that cannot be summarized — text factors, text character variables, and date/time variables — are skipped with a warning directing the user to jfreq() (date/time variables are not supported here). When every requested variable is unsummarizable, jdesc() stops with an error. Also accepts a simple numeric vector. Supports grouped descriptives via the by parameter.

Haven-labelled variables are reported as haven_labelled (Categorical) in the type line; the uninformative vctrs_vctr class is suppressed.

Examples