Convert metadata into numeric form

Binary metadata items are converted into binary numeric metadata items (with 0/1). Categoric metadata with more than two categories can be binarized, such that each category is represented by a separate binary metadata item. Numeric metadata are kept as is. Dates, when specified, are converted into days since the reference date. Note that constant metadata are removed.

metadataToNumeric(
  metadata,
  yes = "Y",
  no = "N",
  na.threshold = 100,
  to.skip = c(),
  binarize = TRUE,
  date.items = c(),
  format = "%d/%m/%y",
  referenceDate = "1/1/1900",
  remove.neg = TRUE
)

Arguments

metadata	a dataframe
yes	the symbol used for the first value in a binary metadata item (e.g. "Y")
no	the symbol used for the second value in a binary metadata item (e.g. "N")
na.threshold	remove metadata with more than the maximum allowed percentage of missing values
to.skip	names of metadata to skip from binarization
binarize	convert categoric metadata items into as many binary metadata items as there are categories (if false, metadata with more than 2 categories are removed)
date.items	names of metadata items that represent dates
format	the format used for the date items (an example date fitting the default format is 26/1/80)
referenceDate	reference date used for conversion of dates into numbers (the reference date format is always d/m/Y)
remove.neg	remove metadata items with negative values

Value

a purely numeric dataframe