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Load survey from file and create Survey object

Source: R/load_survey.R
load_survey.Rd

This function reads survey files in multiple formats and creates a Survey object with all necessary metadata for subsequent analysis. Supports various survey types with specific configurations for each one.

Usage

load_survey(
  path = NULL,
  svy_type = NULL,
  svy_edition = NULL,
  svy_weight = NULL,
  svy_psu = NULL,
  ...,
  bake = FALSE,
  recipes = NULL
)

Arguments

path

Path to the survey file. Supports multiple formats: csv, xlsx, dta (Stata), sav (SPSS), rds (R). If NULL, survey arguments must be specified to create an empty object

svy_type

Survey type as string. Supported types:

  • "ech": Encuesta Continua de Hogares (Uruguay)

  • "eph": Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (Argentina)

  • "eai": Encuesta de Actividades de Innovación (Uruguay)

  • "eaii": Encuesta de Actividades de Innovación e I+D (Uruguay)

svy_edition

Survey edition as string. Supports different temporal patterns:

  • "YYYY": Year (e.g., "2023")

  • "YYYYMM" or "MMYYYY": Year-month (e.g., "202301" or "012023")

  • "YYYY-YYYY": Year range (e.g., "2020-2022")

svy_weight

List with weight information specifying periodicity and weight variable name. Use helper function add_weight

svy_psu

Primary sampling unit (PSU) variable as string

...

Additional arguments passed to specific reading functions

bake

Logical indicating whether recipes are processed automatically when loading data. Defaults to FALSE

recipes

Recipe object obtained with get_recipe. If bake=TRUE, these recipes are applied automatically

Value

Survey object with structure:

  • data: Survey data

  • metadata: Information about type, edition, weights

  • steps: History of applied transformations

  • recipes: Available recipes

  • design: Sample design information

Details

The function automatically detects file format and uses the appropriate reader. For each survey type, it applies specific configurations such as standard variables, data types, and validations.

When bake=TRUE is specified, recipes are applied immediately after loading the data, creating an analysis-ready object.

If no path is provided, an empty Survey object is created that can be used to build step pipelines without initial data.

See also

add_weight to specify weights get_recipe to get available recipes load_survey_example to load example data load_panel_survey for panel surveys

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Load ECH 2023 with recipes
ech_2023 <- load_survey(
  path = "data/ech_2023.csv",
  svy_type = "ech",
  svy_edition = "2023",
  svy_weight = add_weight(annual = "pesoano"),
  recipes = get_recipe("ech", "2023"),
  bake = TRUE
)

# Load monthly survey
ech_january <- load_survey(
  path = "data/ech_202301.dta", 
  svy_type = "ech",
  svy_edition = "202301",
  svy_weight = add_weight(monthly = "pesomes")
)

# Create empty object for pipeline
pipeline <- load_survey(
  svy_type = "ech",
  svy_edition = "2023"
) %>%
  step_compute(new_var = operation)

# With included example data
ech_example <- load_survey(
  metasurvey::load_survey_example("ech", "ech_2022"),
  svy_type = "ech", 
  svy_edition = "2022",
  svy_weight = add_weight(annual = "pesoano")
)
} # }