Column data types • tibble

library(tibble)

This vignette shows an overview of known data types and their abbreviations, and their origin. For example, <int> in the header of a column indicates an integer column, and <chr> denotes a character column.

Class	Data type	Example	Column header
Atomic	logical	`TRUE`	lgl
	integer	`1L`	int
	double	`1.5`	dbl
	character	`"A"`	chr
	complex	`0+1i`	cpl
	raw	`as.raw(1)`	raw
	list	`list(1)`	list
	named list	`list(a = 1)`	named list
Built-in objects	factor	`factor("A")`	fct
	ordered	`ordered("a")`	ord
	Date	`Sys.Date()`	date
	POSIXt	`Sys.time()`	dttm
	difftime	`vctrs::new_duration(1)`	drtn
Objects from other packages	hms	`hms::hms(1)`	time
	integer64	`bit64::as.integer64(1e+10)`	int64
	blob	`blob::blob(raw(1))`	blob
Data frames	data.frame	`data.frame(a = 1)`	df[,1]
	tbl_df	`tibble(a = 1)`	tibble
Unchanged	AsIs	`I(1L)`	I
vctrs types	unspecified	`vctrs::unspecified(1L)`	???
	vctrs_list_of	`vctrs::list_of(c(1L))`	list
	vctrs_vctr	`vctrs::new_vctr(1L)`	vctrs_vc
	vctrs_unspecified	`vctrs::unspecified(1)`	???
	vctrs_partial_factor	`vctrs::partial_factor(letters)`	prtl_fctr
	vctrs_partial_frame	`vctrs::partial_frame(a = 1)`	prtl
Language objects	function	`function() NULL`	fn
	symbol	`quote(a)`	sym
	expression	`parse(text = "a <- 1\nb<- 2")`	expression
	quosures	`rlang::quos(a = 1)`	quos

The following overview contains example values for each type:

#> Rows: 1
#> Columns: 24
#> $ logical           <lgl> TRUE
#> $ integer           <int> 1
#> $ double            <dbl> 1.5
#> $ character         <chr> "A"
#> $ complex           <cpl> 0+1i
#> $ raw               <raw> 01
#> $ list              <list> [1]
#> $ `named list`      <named list> [1]
#> $ factor            <fct> A
#> $ ordered           <ord> a
#> $ Date              <date> 2020-04-23
#> $ POSIXt            <dttm> 2020-04-23 15:45:24
#> $ difftime          <drtn> 1 secs
#> $ hms               <time> 00:00:01
#> $ integer64         <int64> 10000000000
#> $ blob              <blob> blob[1 B]
#> $ data.frame        <df[,1]> <data.frame[1 x 1]>
#> $ tbl_df            <tibble> <tbl_df[1 x 1]>
#> $ AsIs              <I<int>> 1
#> $ unspecified       <???> NA
#> $ vctrs_list_of     <list<int>> 1
#> $ vctrs_vctr        <vctrs_vc> 1
#> $ vctrs_unspecified <???> NA
#> $ quosures          <quos> [~1]

Implementation

The column header is obtained by calling pillar::type_sum() on the column. This is an S3 method that can be overridden, but most of the time it is more useful to override vctrs::vec_ptype_abbr():

pillar:::type_sum.default
#> function(x) {
#>   if (is.object(x)) return(vctrs::vec_ptype_abbr(x))
#>   # r-lib/vctrs#323:
#>   if (typeof(x) == "complex") return("cpl")
#>   if (vec_is(x)) return(vctrs::vec_ptype_abbr(x))
#> 
#>   switch(typeof(x),
#>     builtin = ,
#>     special = ,
#>     closure = "fn",
#>     environment = "env",
#>     symbol =
#>       if (is_missing(x)) {
#>         "missing"
#>       } else {
#>         "sym"
#>       },
#> 
#>     typeof(x)
#>   )
#> }
#> <bytecode: 0x55757f158518>
#> <environment: namespace:pillar>