compare_df function

Flag the differences between two dataframes.

compare_df(
  df_extractor_1,
  df_extractor_2,
  ordering_columns = NULL,
  tolerance = 0,
  tolerance_type = "ratio",
  output = "html",
  file_name = "comparison.xlsx"
)

Arguments

• df_extractor_1: a first dataset. Differences with the second dataset will be flagged in green.
• df_extractor_2: a second dataset. Differences with the first dataset will be flagged in red.
• ordering_columns: column names that should be used to re-order the two datasets before running the comparisons
• tolerance: the cut-off value used to flag differences between two numeric values
• tolerance_type: must be either 'difference' or 'ratio'
• output: type of object returned by the function (see 'Value' section). Must be either 'wide', 'long', 'html', 'html2' or 'xlsx'.
• file_name: the name of the generated file (only used when output="xlsx")

Returns

This function returns a dataframe composed of the rows that include a difference (all identical rows are removed). Several outputs can be requested :

1. setting output="xlsx" returns an excel file. A message indicates the location of the generated file on your computer.
2. setting output="html" returns an html file
3. setting output="html2" returns an html file (only useful when the "html" command did not make the html pane appear in R studio).
4. setting output="wide" a wide dataframe
5. setting output="long" a long dataframe

Details

This function aims to facilitate the comparison of two datasets created by blind data extractors during a systematic review. It is a wrapper of several functions from the 'compareDF' package.

Examples

df.compare1 = df.compare1[order(df.compare1$author), ]
df.compare2 = df.compare2[order(df.compare2$year), ]

compare_df(
  df_extractor_1 = df.compare1,
  df_extractor_2 = df.compare2,
  ordering_columns = c("author", "year")
)

References

Alex Joseph (2022). compareDF: Do a Git Style Diff of the Rows Between Two Dataframes with Similar Structure. R package version 2.3.3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=compareDF