Column data types

library(tibble)

Overview

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[,1]
Unchanged	AsIs	I(1L)	I
vctrs types	unspecified	vctrs::unspecified(1)	???
	vctrs_list_of	vctrs::list_of(c(1L))	list
	vctrs_vctr	vctrs::new_vctr(1L)	vctrs_vc
	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

Example values

The following overview contains example values for each type:

#> Rows: 1
#> Columns: 23
#> $ 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> 2021-11-29
#> $ POSIXt        <dttm> 2021-11-29 13:56:34
#> $ difftime      <drtn> 1 secs
#> $ hms           <time> 00:00:01
#> $ integer64     <int64> 10000000000
#> $ blob          <blob> 00
#> $ data.frame    <df[,1]> <data.frame[1 x 1]>
#> $ tbl_df        <tibble[,1]> <tbl_df[1 x 1]>
#> $ AsIs          <I<int>> 1
#> $ unspecified   <???> NA
#> $ vctrs_list_of <list<int>> 1
#> $ vctrs_vctr    <vctrs_vc> 1
#> $ 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) {
#>   pillar_attr <- attr(x, "pillar", exact = TRUE)
#> 
#>   label <- pillar_attr$label
#>   if (!is.null(label)) {
#>     return(I(label))
#>   }
#> 
#>   if (is.object(x) || vctrs::vec_is(x)) {
#>     return(vec_ptype_abbr(x))
#>   }
#> 
#>   switch(typeof(x),
#>     builtin = ,
#>     special = ,
#>     closure = "fn",
#>     environment = "env",
#>     symbol =
#>       if (is_missing(x)) {
#>         "missing"
#>       } else {
#>         "sym"
#>       },
#> 
#>     typeof(x)
#>   )
#> }
#> <bytecode: 0x5643120eb5a0>
#> <environment: namespace:pillar>