Compute sort key for a variable — compute_var

Returns an integer or numeric vector of sort keys for the values of a variable. Priority: factor levels > VARN companion column > alphabetical. The method parameter can override this auto-detection.

Usage

compute_var_order(
  values,
  var_name = NULL,
  data_dt = NULL,
  method = NULL,
  count_values = NULL
)

Arguments

values: Character or factor vector of values to sort
var_name: Character string naming the variable (for VARN lookup)
data_dt: data.table with the raw data (for VARN lookup)
method: Character: NULL (auto), "byfactor", "byvarn", "bycount", "alphabetical"
count_values: Numeric vector of counts per row (for bycount method)

Value

Numeric vector of sort keys (lower = earlier)