roomba

This is a package to transform large, multi-nested lists into a more user-friendly format (i.e. a tibble) in R. The initial focus is on making processing of return values from jsonlite::fromJSON() queries more seamless, but ideally this package should be useful for deeply-nested lists from an array of sources.

*Key features:*

roomba() searches deeply-nested list for names specified in cols (a character vector) and returns a tibble with the associated column titles. Nothing further about nesting hierarchy or depth need be specified.
Handles empty values gracefully by substituting NULL values with NA or user-specified value in default, or truncates lists appropriately.
If you're only interested in sniffing out and replacing all NULLs, turn to the replace_null() function.
Option to keep any or all data from the columns supplied

Installation

You can install the development version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("cstawitz/roomba")

Usage

Say we have some JSON from a pesky API.

library(roomba)

json <- '
  {
    "stuff": {
      "buried": {
        "deep": [
          {
            "location": "here",
            "name": "Laura DeCicco",
            "super_power": "fixing merge conflicts",
            "other_secret_power": []
          },
          {
            "location": "here",
            "name": "Amanda Dobbyn",
            "super_power": "flight",
            "more_nested_stuff": 4
          }
        ],
        "alsodeep": 2342423234,
        "stilldeep": {
          "even_deeper": [
            {
              "location": "not here",
              "name": "Jim Hester",
              "super_power": []
            },
            {
              "location": "here",
              "name": "Christine Stawitz",
              "super_power": "invisibility",
              "more_nested_stuff": 5
            },
            {
              "location": "here",
              "name": "Isabella Velasquez",
              "super_power": "teleportation"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }'

The JSON becomes a nested R list,

super_data <- json %>% 
  jsonlite::fromJSON(simplifyVector = FALSE)

which we can pull data into the columns we want with roomba.

super_data %>%
  roomba(cols = c("name", "super_power", "more_nested_stuff"), keep = any)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 3
#>   name               super_power            more_nested_stuff
#>   <chr>              <chr>                              <int>
#> 1 Laura DeCicco      fixing merge conflicts                NA
#> 2 Amanda Dobbyn      flight                                 4
#> 3 Jim Hester         <NA>                                  NA
#> 4 Christine Stawitz  invisibility                           5
#> 5 Isabella Velasquez teleportation                         NA

Let's try with a real-world Twitter example (see package data to use this data).

roomba(twitter_data, c("created_at", "name"))
#> # A tibble: 24 x 2
#>    name                 created_at                    
#>    <chr>                <chr>                         
#>  1 Code for America     Mon Aug 10 18:59:29 +0000 2009
#>  2 Ben Lorica 罗瑞卡    Mon Dec 22 22:06:18 +0000 2008
#>  3 Dan Sholler          Thu Apr 03 20:09:24 +0000 2014
#>  4 Code for America     Mon Aug 10 18:59:29 +0000 2009
#>  5 FiveThirtyEight      Tue Jan 21 21:39:32 +0000 2014
#>  6 Digital Impact       Wed Oct 07 21:10:53 +0000 2009
#>  7 Drew Williams        Thu Aug 07 18:41:29 +0000 2014
#>  8 joe                  Fri May 29 13:25:25 +0000 2009
#>  9 Data Analysts 4 Good Wed May 07 16:55:33 +0000 2014
#> 10 Ryan Frederick       Sun Mar 01 19:06:53 +0000 2009
#> # ... with 14 more rows

Shiny app included!

Run the app like this:

shiny_roomba()

What did that original data look like???

Feast your eyes on the original super_data list!

super_data
#> $stuff
#> $stuff$buried
#> $stuff$buried$deep
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[1]]
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[1]]$location
#> [1] "here"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[1]]$name
#> [1] "Laura DeCicco"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[1]]$super_power
#> [1] "fixing merge conflicts"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[1]]$other_secret_power
#> list()
#> 
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[2]]
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[2]]$location
#> [1] "here"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[2]]$name
#> [1] "Amanda Dobbyn"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[2]]$super_power
#> [1] "flight"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$deep[[2]]$more_nested_stuff
#> [1] 4
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$alsodeep
#> [1] 2342423234
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[1]]
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[1]]$location
#> [1] "not here"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[1]]$name
#> [1] "Jim Hester"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[1]]$super_power
#> list()
#> 
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[2]]
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[2]]$location
#> [1] "here"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[2]]$name
#> [1] "Christine Stawitz"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[2]]$super_power
#> [1] "invisibility"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[2]]$more_nested_stuff
#> [1] 5
#> 
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[3]]
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[3]]$location
#> [1] "here"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[3]]$name
#> [1] "Isabella Velasquez"
#> 
#> $stuff$buried$stilldeep$even_deeper[[3]]$super_power
#> [1] "teleportation"

And just the first element of the twitter dataset 😱

twitter_data[[1]]
#> $created_at
#> [1] "Mon May 21 17:58:09 +0000 2018"
#> 
#> $id
#> [1] 9.98624e+17
#> 
#> $id_str
#> [1] "998623997397876743"
#> 
#> $text
#> [1] "Could a program like food stamps have a Cambridge Analytica moment? How do we allow for the innovation that data pl… https://t.co/7tVf1qmNmq"
#> 
#> $truncated
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $entities
#> $entities$hashtags
#> list()
#> 
#> $entities$symbols
#> list()
#> 
#> $entities$user_mentions
#> list()
#> 
#> $entities$urls
#> $entities$urls[[1]]
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$url
#> [1] "https://t.co/7tVf1qmNmq"
#> 
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$expanded_url
#> [1] "https://twitter.com/i/web/status/998623997397876743"
#> 
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$display_url
#> [1] "twitter.com/i/web/status/9…"
#> 
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$indices
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$indices[[1]]
#> [1] 117
#> 
#> $entities$urls[[1]]$indices[[2]]
#> [1] 140
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> $source
#> [1] "<a href=\"https://about.twitter.com/products/tweetdeck\" rel=\"nofollow\">TweetDeck</a>"
#> 
#> $in_reply_to_status_id
#> NULL
#> 
#> $in_reply_to_status_id_str
#> NULL
#> 
#> $in_reply_to_user_id
#> NULL
#> 
#> $in_reply_to_user_id_str
#> NULL
#> 
#> $in_reply_to_screen_name
#> NULL
#> 
#> $user
#> $user$id
#> [1] 64482503
#> 
#> $user$id_str
#> [1] "64482503"
#> 
#> $user$name
#> [1] "Code for America"
#> 
#> $user$screen_name
#> [1] "codeforamerica"
#> 
#> $user$location
#> [1] "San Francisco, California"
#> 
#> $user$description
#> [1] "Government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. Help us make it so."
#> 
#> $user$url
#> [1] "https://t.co/l9lokka0rJ"
#> 
#> $user$entities
#> $user$entities$url
#> $user$entities$url$urls
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$url
#> [1] "https://t.co/l9lokka0rJ"
#> 
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$expanded_url
#> [1] "http://codeforamerica.org"
#> 
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$display_url
#> [1] "codeforamerica.org"
#> 
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$indices
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$indices[[1]]
#> [1] 0
#> 
#> $user$entities$url$urls[[1]]$indices[[2]]
#> [1] 23
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> $user$entities$description
#> $user$entities$description$urls
#> list()
#> 
#> 
#> 
#> $user$protected
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$followers_count
#> [1] 49202
#> 
#> $user$friends_count
#> [1] 1716
#> 
#> $user$listed_count
#> [1] 2659
#> 
#> $user$created_at
#> [1] "Mon Aug 10 18:59:29 +0000 2009"
#> 
#> $user$favourites_count
#> [1] 4490
#> 
#> $user$utc_offset
#> [1] -25200
#> 
#> $user$time_zone
#> [1] "Pacific Time (US & Canada)"
#> 
#> $user$geo_enabled
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $user$verified
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $user$statuses_count
#> [1] 15912
#> 
#> $user$lang
#> [1] "en"
#> 
#> $user$contributors_enabled
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$is_translator
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$is_translation_enabled
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$profile_background_color
#> [1] "EBEBEB"
#> 
#> $user$profile_background_image_url
#> [1] "http://abs.twimg.com/images/themes/theme7/bg.gif"
#> 
#> $user$profile_background_image_url_https
#> [1] "https://abs.twimg.com/images/themes/theme7/bg.gif"
#> 
#> $user$profile_background_tile
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$profile_image_url
#> [1] "http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/615534833645678592/iAO_Lytr_normal.jpg"
#> 
#> $user$profile_image_url_https
#> [1] "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/615534833645678592/iAO_Lytr_normal.jpg"
#> 
#> $user$profile_banner_url
#> [1] "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/64482503/1497895952"
#> 
#> $user$profile_link_color
#> [1] "CF1B41"
#> 
#> $user$profile_sidebar_border_color
#> [1] "FFFFFF"
#> 
#> $user$profile_sidebar_fill_color
#> [1] "F3F3F3"
#> 
#> $user$profile_text_color
#> [1] "333333"
#> 
#> $user$profile_use_background_image
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$has_extended_profile
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$default_profile
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$default_profile_image
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$following
#> [1] TRUE
#> 
#> $user$follow_request_sent
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$notifications
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $user$translator_type
#> [1] "none"
#> 
#> 
#> $geo
#> NULL
#> 
#> $coordinates
#> NULL
#> 
#> $place
#> NULL
#> 
#> $contributors
#> NULL
#> 
#> $is_quote_status
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $retweet_count
#> [1] 0
#> 
#> $favorite_count
#> [1] 0
#> 
#> $favorited
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $retweeted
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $possibly_sensitive
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $possibly_sensitive_appealable
#> [1] FALSE
#> 
#> $lang
#> [1] "en"

Happy cleaning!

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 234 Commits
R		R
data		data
docs		docs
images		images
img		img
inst		inst
man		man
tests		tests
vignettes		vignettes
.Rbuildignore		.Rbuildignore
.gitignore		.gitignore
.travis.yml		.travis.yml
DESCRIPTION		DESCRIPTION
LICENSE		LICENSE
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
NAMESPACE		NAMESPACE
README.Rmd		README.Rmd
README.html		README.html
README.md		README.md
_pkgdown.yml		_pkgdown.yml
roomba.Rproj		roomba.Rproj

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