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Coerce a defined vector to character

Source: R/as_character.R
as_character.Rd

as_character() is the recommended method to convert a defined() vector to a character type. It is metadata-aware and ensures that the underlying data is character before coercion.

Base R's as.character() method applied to defined vectors simply strips the class and returns the values as a plain character vector. This is equivalent to calling as_character() with preserve_attributes = FALSE.

Usage

as_character(x, ...)

# S3 method for class 'haven_labelled_defined'
as_character(x, preserve_attributes = FALSE, ...)

# S3 method for class 'haven_labelled_defined'
as.character(x, ...)

Arguments

x

A vector created with defined().

...

Reserved for future use.

preserve_attributes

Logical. If TRUE, retains unit, concept, and namespace attributes. Defaults to FALSE.

Value

A character vector.

Details

If preserve_attributes = TRUE, the returned character vector retains semantic metadata such as unit, concept, and namespace, though the "defined" class itself is removed. If preserve_attributes = FALSE (default), a plain character vector is returned with all attributes stripped.

For numeric-based defined vectors, as_character() throws an informative error to avoid accidental coercion of non-character data.

Note: as.character() (base R) is supported but simply returns the raw values, and does not preserve or warn about metadata loss.

See also

strip_defined(), as_numeric()

Examples

# Recommended use
fruits <- defined(c("apple", "avocado", "kiwi"), label = "Fruit", unit = "kg")
as_character(fruits, preserve_attributes = TRUE)
#> [1] "apple"   "avocado" "kiwi"   
#> attr(,"unit")
#> [1] "kg"

# Strip metadata
as_character(fruits, preserve_attributes = FALSE)
#> [1] "apple"   "avocado" "kiwi"   

# Equivalent base R fallback
as.character(fruits)
#> [1] "apple"   "avocado" "kiwi"