https://www.rostrum.blog/tags/a11ytables/ Recent content in A11ytables on rostrum.blog Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.rostrum.blog/2023/06/13/panic-in-the-toolshed/ Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.rostrum.blog/2023/06/13/panic-in-the-toolshed/ tl;dr I wrote some slides to tell data scientists in the public sector what they already know: share the tools you’ve developed. An axe to grind I’m speaking today at an event for UK government data scientists with a theme of ‘the data science toolshed’. My plea is small: I want public sector workers to share the tools they make1. We should build modular things like R packages that are easy to use and develop; make them available to everyone to minimise duplication and encourage collaboration; and maximise reach by telling everyone about it. https://www.rostrum.blog/2023/04/23/type-convert/ Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.rostrum.blog/2023/04/23/type-convert/ Confirmed: Unown is character type.1 tl;dr I forgot that the base R function type.convert() exists. Handy for ‘simplifying’ all the columns of a dataframe to appropriate data types. Suppression depression {a11ytables} is an R package that lets you generate publishable spreadsheets that follow the UK government’s best practice guidance. One requirement is to replace missing values with placeholder symbols. For example, suppressed data can be replaced with the string " https://www.rostrum.blog/2022/09/07/earl22/ Wed, 07 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.rostrum.blog/2022/09/07/earl22/ Please don’t sue me for my fan art, Microsoft. tl;dr I presented some slides at the EARL 2022 conference about {a11ytables}: an R package that helps automate the production of reproducible and accessible spreadsheets, with a focus on publication of government statistics. Counting sheets The UK government publishes a lot of spreadsheets that contain statistical tables. Compared to each other—and to themselves over time—these files are often: inconsistent in structure (e.