nhanesTables function

Returns a list of table names for the specified survey group.

Enables quick display of all available tables in the survey group.

nhanesTables(
  data_group,
  year,
  nchar = 128,
  details = FALSE,
  namesonly = FALSE,
  includerdc = FALSE
)

Arguments

• data_group: The type of survey (DEMOGRAPHICS, DIETARY, EXAMINATION, LABORATORY, QUESTIONNAIRE). Abbreviated terms may also be used: (DEMO, DIET, EXAM, LAB, Q).
• year: The year in yyyy format where 1999 <= yyyy.
• nchar: Truncates the table description to a max length of nchar.
• details: If TRUE then a more detailed description of the tables is returned (default=FALSE).
• namesonly: If TRUE then only the table names are returned (default=FALSE).
• includerdc: If TRUE then RDC only tables are included in list (default=FALSE).

Returns

Returns a data frame that contains table attributes. If namesonly=TRUE, then a character vector of table names is returned.

Details

Function nhanesTables retrieves a list of tables and a description of their contents from the NHANES website. This provides a convenient way to browse the available tables. NULL is returned when an HTML read error is encountered.

Examples

exam = nhanesTables('EXAM', 2007)
dim(exam)
lab = nhanesTables('LAB', 2009, details=TRUE, includerdc=TRUE)
dim(lab)
q = nhanesTables('Q', 2005, namesonly=TRUE)
length(q)
diet = nhanesTables('DIET', 'P')
dim(diet)
exam = nhanesTables('EXAM', 'Y')
dim(exam)