Overview
The goal of fastDummies is to quickly create dummy variables (columns) and dummy rows. Creating dummy variables is possible through base R or other packages, but this package is much faster than those methods.
Usage
There are two functions in this package:
-
dummy_cols()lets you make dummy variables (dummy_columns()is a clone ofdummy_cols()) -
dummy_rows()which lets you make dummy rows.
Dummy Columns
Dummy variables (or binary variables) are commonly used in statistical analyses and in more simple descriptive statistics. A dummy column is one which has a value of one when a categorical event occurs and a zero when it doesn’t occur. In most cases this is a feature of the event/person/object being described. For example, if the dummy variable was for occupation being an R programmer, you can ask, “is this person an R programmer?” When the answer is yes, they get a value of 1, when it is no, they get a value of 0.
We’ll start with a simple example and then go into using the function dummy_cols(). You can also use the function dummy_columns() which is identical to dummy_cols().
Imagine you have a data set about animals in a local shelter. One of the columns in your data is what animal it is: dog or cat.
| animals |
|---|
| dog |
| dog |
| cat |
To make dummy columns from this data, you would need to produce two new columns. One would indicate if the animal is a dog, and the other would indicate if the animal is a cat. Each row would get a value of 1 in the column indicating which animal they are, and 0 in the other column.
| animals | dog | cat |
|---|---|---|
| dog | 1 | 0 |
| dog | 1 | 0 |
| cat | 0 | 1 |
In the function dummy_cols, the names of these new columns are concatenated to the original column and separated by an underscore.
| animals | animals_dog | animals_cat |
|---|---|---|
| dog | 1 | 0 |
| dog | 1 | 0 |
| cat | 0 | 1 |
With an example like this, it is fairly easy to make the dummy columns yourself. dummy_cols() automates the process, and is useful when you have many columns to general dummy variables from or with many categories within the column.
fastDummies_example <- data.frame(numbers = 1:3,
gender = c("male", "male", "female"),
animals = c("dog", "dog", "cat"),
dates = as.Date(c("2012-01-01", "2011-12-31",
"2012-01-01")),
stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
knitr::kable(fastDummies_example)| numbers | gender | animals | dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | male | dog | 2012-01-01 |
| 2 | male | dog | 2011-12-31 |
| 3 | female | cat | 2012-01-01 |
The object fastDummies_example has two character type columns, one integer column, and a Date column. By default, dummy_cols() will make dummy variables from factor or character columns only. This is because in most cases those are the only types of data you want dummy variables from. If those are the only columns you want, then the function takes your data set as the first parameter and returns a data.frame with the newly created variables appended to the end of the original data.
results <- fastDummies::dummy_cols(fastDummies_example)
knitr::kable(results)| numbers | gender | animals | dates | gender_female | gender_male | animals_cat | animals_dog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | male | dog | 2012-01-01 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | male | dog | 2011-12-31 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | female | cat | 2012-01-01 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Dummy Rows
When dealing with data, there are often missing rows. While truly handling missing data is far beyond the scope of this package, the function dummy_rows() lets you add those missing rows back into the data.
The function takes all character, factor, and Date columns, finds all possible combinations of their values, and adds the rows that are not in the original data set. Any columns not used in creating the combinations (e.g. numeric) are given a value of NA (unless otherwise specified with dummy_value).
Lets start with a simple example.
fastDummies_example <- data.frame(numbers = 1:3,
gender = c("male", "male", "female"),
animals = c("dog", "dog", "cat"),
dates = as.Date(c("2012-01-01", "2011-12-31",
"2012-01-01")),
stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
knitr::kable(fastDummies_example)| numbers | gender | animals | dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | male | dog | 2012-01-01 |
| 2 | male | dog | 2011-12-31 |
| 3 | female | cat | 2012-01-01 |
This data set has four columns: two character, one Date, and one numeric. The function by default will use the character and Date columns in creating the combinations. First, a small amount of math to explain the combinations. Each column has two distinct values - gender: male & female; animals: dog & cat; dates: 2011-12-31 & 2011-12-31. To find the number of possible combinations, multiple the number of unique values in each column together. 2 * 2 * 2 = 8.
results <- fastDummies::dummy_rows(fastDummies_example)
knitr::kable(results)| numbers | gender | animals | dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | male | dog | 2012-01-01 |
| 2 | male | dog | 2011-12-31 |
| 3 | female | cat | 2012-01-01 |
| NA | female | cat | 2011-12-31 |
| NA | male | cat | 2011-12-31 |
| NA | female | dog | 2011-12-31 |
| NA | male | cat | 2012-01-01 |
| NA | female | dog | 2012-01-01 |