What ap does

Apercu (ap) is a R package made to give you a quick view (an aperçu in French) of any R object. It works (or is supposed to) on vectors, matrices, data frames (even with matrices inside), lists and arrays. Since the first versions, it is now able to select data from these objects. And finally, when you want more details, it also gives you the dimension and classes of the object.

How to install it

To install it, in R, you currectly just need to:

install.packages("apercu")

If you want to install the development version:

library(devtools)
install_github("achateigner/apercu")
library(apercu)

Example usage

Creation of a vector, a matrix, a data frame, a list, and 3 arrays of 3, 4 and 5 dimensions:

v <- c(1:20)
names(v) <- letters[1:20]
m <- matrix(1:100, 10, 10)
dimnames(m) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
df <- as.data.frame(m)
li <- lapply(1:10, function(x) {u <- matrix((1:100)*x, 10,10); dimnames(u) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
    return(u)})
names(li) <- letters[1:10]
a <- array(c(1:1000), c(10,10,10))
dimnames(a) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
a2 <- array(1:10000, c(10,10,10,10))
dimnames(a2) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
a3 <- array(1:100000, c(10,10,10,10,10))
dimnames(a3) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])

Automatic aperçu of the objects

ap(v)
ap(m)
ap(df)
ap(li)
ap(a)
ap(a2)
ap(a3)

if the size of the object is very small :

sm <- matrix(1:4, 2, 2)
sDf <- as.data.frame(sm)
ap(sm)
ap(sDf)

Specific aperçu of the objects

ap(v, list(1:2))
ap(m, list(c(1,3), c(1:5)))
ap(m, list(c(1,3,1:5))) # outputs a vector as only one dimension is given
ap(df, list(c(1,3,5), 1:10)) # outputs lines 1, 3 and 5, and columns 1 to 10
ap(li, list(c(1:3,5),c(4,6,9), c(3,6))) # the result is different between a list and an array
ap(a, list(c(1:3,5),c(4,6,9), c(3,6))) # as the dimensions of both are not in the same order
ap(a, list(1,3,5)) # outputs the element a[1,3,5]
ap(a, list(c(1,3,5))) # outputs the element a[c(1,3,5),1,1]
ap(a2, list(c(1:4),c(3:5),c(2:8),c(3:4)))
ap(a3, list(c(1:4),c(3:5),c(2:3),c(3:4), c(7:10)))

To print also the dimensions and classes

print(ap(v), printAll = T)
print(ap(m), printAll = T)
print(ap(df), printAll = T)
print(ap(li), printAll = T)
print(ap(a), printAll = T)
print(ap(a2), printAll = T)
print(ap(a3), printAll = T)

It also works with data frames with a matrix in it:

library(pls)
data("gasoline")
ap(gasoline)
ap(gasoline, list(1:10, list(1:10,1:10)))

How to set up the dev environment

If you want to fork my work, nothing special is required (just citing my work). Here are the tests that are done on the package:

context("ap")

# Creation of objects
v <- c(1:20)
names(v) <- letters[1:20]
m <- matrix(1:100, 10, 10)
dimnames(m) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
df <- as.data.frame(m)
li <- lapply(1:10, function(x) {u <- matrix((1:100)*x, 10,10); dimnames(u) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
return(u)})
lis <- li[1:3]
names(li) <- letters[1:10]
a <- array(c(1:1000), c(10,10,10))
dimnames(a) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
a2 <- array(1:10000, c(10,10,10,10))
dimnames(a2) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
a3 <- array(1:100000, c(10,10,10,10,10))
dimnames(a3) <- list(letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10], letters[1:10])
sm <- matrix(1:4, 2, 2)
sDf <- as.data.frame(sm)
library(pls)
data("gasoline")



test_that("works on vectors", {
  expect_equal(ap(v)$apercu, v[1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(v)$dimensions, NULL)
  expect_equal(ap(v)$classes, "integer")
})

test_that("works on matrices", {
  expect_equal(ap(m)$apercu, m[1:5,1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(m)$dimensions, c(10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(m)$classes, "matrix")
})

test_that("works on small matrices", {
  expect_equal(ap(sm)$apercu, sm[1:2,1:2])
  expect_equal(ap(sm)$dimensions, c(2,2))
  expect_equal(ap(sm)$classes, "matrix")
})

test_that("works on data.frames", {
  expect_equal(ap(df)$apercu, df[1:5,1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(df)$dimensions, c(10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(df)$classes,
               list(object="data.frame", elements="integer"))
})

test_that("works on small data.frames", {
  expect_equal(ap(sDf)$apercu, sDf[1:2,1:2])
  expect_equal(ap(sDf)$dimensions, c(2,2))
  expect_equal(ap(sDf)$classes,
               list(object="data.frame", elements="integer"))
})

test_that("works on data.frames with AsIs Matrices in it", {
  expect_equal(ap(gasoline)$apercu,
               data.frame(octane=gasoline$octane[1:5],
                          NIR=I(gasoline$NIR[1:5,1:5])))
  expect_equal(ap(gasoline)$dimensions,
               list(octane=NULL, NIR=c(60,401)))
  expect_equal(ap(gasoline)$classes, list(octane="numeric", NIR="AsIs"))
})

test_that("works on lists", {
  expect_equal(ap(li)$apercu, lapply(li[1:5], function(x) x[1:5,1:5]))
  expect_equal(ap(li)$dimensions, c(10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(li)$classes, "matrix")
})

test_that("works on small lists", {
  expect_equal(ap(lis)$apercu, lapply(lis, function(x) x[1:5,1:5]))
  expect_equal(ap(lis)$dimensions, c(10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(lis)$classes, "matrix")
})

test_that("works on arrays of 3 dimensions", {
  expect_equal(ap(a)$apercu, a[1:5,1:5,1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(a)$dimensions, c(10,10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(a)$classes, "array")
})

test_that("works on arrays of 4 dimensions", {
  expect_equal(ap(a2)$apercu, a2[1:5,1:5,1:5,1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(a2)$dimensions, c(10,10,10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(a2)$classes, "array")
})

test_that("works on arrays of 5 dimensions", {
  expect_equal(ap(a3)$apercu, a3[1:5,1:5,1:5,1:5,1:5])
  expect_equal(ap(a3)$dimensions, c(10,10,10,10,10))
  expect_equal(ap(a3)$classes, "array")
})

How to ship a change

If you want to contribute to this work, fill free to send a pull request.

License and author info

Author and maintainer: Aurelien Chateigner aurelien.chateigner@gmail.com
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Special thanks to: Vincent Segura, Facundo Muñoz and Thibaud Chauvin for tests and improvements.