Delete Variables from REDCap Dataset and Dictionary

Deletes selected variables from a REDCap dataset and its dictionary, keeping them consistent and preserving variable labels.

Usage

rd_delete_vars(
  project = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  dic = NULL,
  event_form = NULL,
  vars = NULL,
  pattern = NULL
)

Arguments

project: A list containing the REDCap data, dictionary, and event mapping (expected redcap_data() output). Overrides data, dic, and event_form.
data: A data.frame or tibble with the REDCap dataset.
dic: A data.frame with the REDCap dictionary.
event_form: Only applicable for longitudinal projects (presence of events). Event-to-form mapping for longitudinal projects.
vars: Optional. A character vector of variable names to remove from both the dataset and dictionary.
pattern: Optional. A character vector of regular expression patterns. Variables matching these patterns will be removed from the dataset and dictionary.

Value

A list containing:

data: The updated dataset with specified variables removed.
dictionary: The updated REDCap dictionary.
event_form: The original event-form mapping (if applicable).
results: A summary message describing the variable removal operation.

Details

Ensure that at least one of vars or pattern is specified.
Removes specified variables and their factor versions (e.g., variable.factor) from the dataset.
Removes matching variables from the dictionary.
Warns about factor versions of variables matching patterns, recommending use of rd_factor() if necessary.

Examples

# Delete specific variables by name
result <- rd_delete_vars(
  project = covican,
  vars = c("potassium", "leuk_lymph")
)

# Delete variables matching patterns
result <- rd_delete_vars(
  data = covican$data,
  dic = covican$dictionary,
  pattern = c("_complete$", "_other$")
)