Tools
Tools
The small utilities that keep everyday analysis quick, consistent and safe to share.
R package
VLabR
A lightweight R package for common data-cleaning and summary-table tasks in health data work: tidy column names, duplicate and uniqueness checks, one-row summaries, covariate balance, stable de-identified IDs and personal-name masking. Name masking can use Python and spaCy when available, with a pure-R fallback for locked-down work computers. Requires R 4.1.0 or later.
Install
install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("LaboratoireV/VLabR", upgrade = "never")
library(VLabR)
vlab_load_vlabr_packages()Selected functions
| Function | What it does |
|---|---|
| Data cleaning | |
vlab_fix_colname() | Clean column names: strip special characters, replace spaces. |
vlab_boost_data() | Detect and convert date-like columns automatically. |
vlab_date_conversion() | Convert input to R Date or date-time values. |
vlab_quote_rm() | Remove stray quotes from character and factor columns. |
vlab_get_duplicates() | Return duplicate rows by one or more keys. |
vlab_check_unique() | Check whether a column is unique. |
vlab_data_type() | Classify columns by analysis type. |
| Summary tables | |
vlab_1_cat() | One-row n (%) table for a categorical variable. |
vlab_1_cont() | One-line summary for a continuous variable. |
vlab_cross_table() | Two-variable cross table. |
vlab_count_unique_categories() | Count unique non-missing categories. |
vlab_compare_balance() | Compare covariate balance between two data frames. |
| De-identification | |
vlab_SID_creator() | Stable de-identified study ID from name, date of birth and gender. |
mask_person_names() | Detect and mask personal names in free text (spaCy, with a pure-R fallback). |
vlab_mask_PHN() | Mask Alberta Personal Health Numbers near a PHN label. |
vlab_mask() | Mask vector values from the front or back. |
| Geography & reference data | |
vlab_travel() | Road travel distance and time for origin–destination pairs via OSRM. |
vlab_google_travel() | The same using Google routing. |
Alberta reference sets | Municipalities, health facilities, schools and Health Canada drug products. |
Practice notes
Python Lab
A running set of beginner Python exercises — variables, type casting, input, conditionals, string methods, loops and functions — written as small, printable programs.