In most cases, when working with a response received from an API, or with any other data that has a complex tree structure, you will encounter JSON and XML formats.
These formats have many advantages: they store data quite compactly and avoid unnecessary duplication of information.
The disadvantage of these formats is the complexity of their processing and analysis. Unstructured data cannot be used in calculations and cannot be visualized based on it.
This article is a logical continuation of the publication . It will help you bring unstructured data structures to a familiar and parsable tabular form using the package tidyrincluded in the core of the library tidyverse, and its functions of the family unnest_*().
Content
If you are interested in data analysis, you might be interested in my и channels. Most of the content of which is devoted to the R language.
Introduction
Rectangling (translator's note, I did not find adequate translations of this term, so let's leave it as it is.) is the process of bringing unstructured data with nested arrays to a two-dimensional table consisting of the rows and columns we are used to. IN tidyr There are several functions to help you expand nested list columns and flatten data into a rectangular, tabular form:
unnest_longer()takes each element of the list-column and creates a new row.unnest_wider()takes each element of the list-column and creates a new column.unnest_auto()automatically determines which of the functions is better to use
unnest_longer()orunnest_wider().hoist()similar tounnest_wider()but selects only the specified components and allows you to work with several levels of nesting.
Most of the problems associated with casting unstructured data with several levels of nesting to a two-dimensional table can be solved by combining the listed functions with dplyr.
To demonstrate these tricks, we will use the package repurrrsive, which exposes several complex, multi-level lists retrieved from the web API.
library(tidyr)
library(dplyr)
library(repurrrsive)GitHub Users
Let's start with gh_users, a list that contains information about six GitHub users. First, let's transform the list gh_users в tibble frame.:
users <- tibble( user = gh_users ) This seems a bit counter-intuitive: why list gh_users, to a more complex data structure? But the data frame has a big advantage: it combines multiple vectors so everything is tracked in one object.
Each element of the object users is a named list where each element represents a column.
names(users$user[[1]])
#> [1] "login" "id" "avatar_url"
#> [4] "gravatar_id" "url" "html_url"
#> [7] "followers_url" "following_url" "gists_url"
#> [10] "starred_url" "subscriptions_url" "organizations_url"
#> [13] "repos_url" "events_url" "received_events_url"
#> [16] "type" "site_admin" "name"
#> [19] "company" "blog" "location"
#> [22] "email" "hireable" "bio"
#> [25] "public_repos" "public_gists" "followers"
#> [28] "following" "created_at" "updated_at"There are two ways to turn list components into columns. unnest_wider() takes each component and creates a new column:
users %>% unnest_wider(user)
#> # A tibble: 6 x 30
#> login id avatar_url gravatar_id url html_url followers_url
#> <chr> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 gabo… 6.60e5 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 2 jenn… 5.99e5 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 3 jtle… 1.57e6 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 4 juli… 1.25e7 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 5 leep… 3.51e6 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 6 masa… 8.36e6 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> # … with 23 more variables: following_url <chr>, gists_url <chr>,
#> # starred_url <chr>, subscriptions_url <chr>, organizations_url <chr>,
#> # repos_url <chr>, events_url <chr>, received_events_url <chr>,
#> # type <chr>, site_admin <lgl>, name <chr>, company <chr>, blog <chr>,
#> # location <chr>, email <chr>, public_repos <int>, public_gists <int>,
#> # followers <int>, following <int>, created_at <chr>, updated_at <chr>,
#> # bio <chr>, hireable <lgl>In this case, we got a table with 30 columns, and we won't need most of them, so we can instead unnest_wider() use hoist(). hoist() allows us to extract the selected components using the same syntax as purrr::pluck():
users %>% hoist(user,
followers = "followers",
login = "login",
url = "html_url"
)
#> # A tibble: 6 x 4
#> followers login url user
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <list>
#> 1 303 gaborcsardi https://github.com/gaborcsardi <named list [27]>
#> 2 780 jennybc https://github.com/jennybc <named list [27]>
#> 3 3958 jtleek https://github.com/jtleek <named list [27]>
#> 4 115 juliasilge https://github.com/juliasilge <named list [27]>
#> 5 213 leeper https://github.com/leeper <named list [27]>
#> 6 34 masalmon https://github.com/masalmon <named list [27]>hoist() removes the specified named components from the list-column userso you can consider hoist() like moving components from the data frame's internal list to its top level.
Github repositories
List alignment gh_repos we start similarly, converting it to tibble:
repos <- tibble(repo = gh_repos)
repos
#> # A tibble: 6 x 1
#> repo
#> <list>
#> 1 <list [30]>
#> 2 <list [30]>
#> 3 <list [30]>
#> 4 <list [26]>
#> 5 <list [30]>
#> 6 <list [30]>This time the elements user are a list of repositories owned by that user. Each repository is a separate observation, so according to the concept of neat data (note tidy data) they should become newlines, so we use unnest_longer() rather than unnest_wider():
repos <- repos %>% unnest_longer(repo)
repos
#> # A tibble: 176 x 1
#> repo
#> <list>
#> 1 <named list [68]>
#> 2 <named list [68]>
#> 3 <named list [68]>
#> 4 <named list [68]>
#> 5 <named list [68]>
#> 6 <named list [68]>
#> 7 <named list [68]>
#> 8 <named list [68]>
#> 9 <named list [68]>
#> 10 <named list [68]>
#> # … with 166 more rowsNow we can use unnest_wider() or hoist() :
repos %>% hoist(repo,
login = c("owner", "login"),
name = "name",
homepage = "homepage",
watchers = "watchers_count"
)
#> # A tibble: 176 x 5
#> login name homepage watchers repo
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <int> <list>
#> 1 gaborcsardi after <NA> 5 <named list [65]>
#> 2 gaborcsardi argufy <NA> 19 <named list [65]>
#> 3 gaborcsardi ask <NA> 5 <named list [65]>
#> 4 gaborcsardi baseimports <NA> 0 <named list [65]>
#> 5 gaborcsardi citest <NA> 0 <named list [65]>
#> 6 gaborcsardi clisymbols "" 18 <named list [65]>
#> 7 gaborcsardi cmaker <NA> 0 <named list [65]>
#> 8 gaborcsardi cmark <NA> 0 <named list [65]>
#> 9 gaborcsardi conditions <NA> 0 <named list [65]>
#> 10 gaborcsardi crayon <NA> 52 <named list [65]>
#> # … with 166 more rowsPay attention to the use c("owner", "login"): this allows us to get the second level value from the nested list owner. An alternative approach is to get the entire list owner and then using the function unnest_wider() put each of its elements in a column:
repos %>%
hoist(repo, owner = "owner") %>%
unnest_wider(owner)
#> # A tibble: 176 x 18
#> login id avatar_url gravatar_id url html_url followers_url
#> <chr> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 2 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 3 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 4 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 5 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 6 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 7 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 8 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 9 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> 10 gabo… 660288 https://a… "" http… https:/… https://api.…
#> # … with 166 more rows, and 11 more variables: following_url <chr>,
#> # gists_url <chr>, starred_url <chr>, subscriptions_url <chr>,
#> # organizations_url <chr>, repos_url <chr>, events_url <chr>,
#> # received_events_url <chr>, type <chr>, site_admin <lgl>, repo <list>Instead of thinking about the choice of the desired function unnest_longer() or unnest_wider() you can use unnest_auto(). This function uses several heuristic methods to select the most suitable function for data transformation, and displays a message about the chosen method.
tibble(repo = gh_repos) %>%
unnest_auto(repo) %>%
unnest_auto(repo)
#> Using `unnest_longer(repo)`; no element has names
#> Using `unnest_wider(repo)`; elements have 68 names in common
#> # A tibble: 176 x 67
#> id name full_name owner private html_url description fork url
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <lis> <lgl> <chr> <chr> <lgl> <chr>
#> 1 6.12e7 after gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Run Code i… FALSE http…
#> 2 4.05e7 argu… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Declarativ… FALSE http…
#> 3 3.64e7 ask gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Friendly C… FALSE http…
#> 4 3.49e7 base… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Do we get … FALSE http…
#> 5 6.16e7 cite… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Test R pac… TRUE http…
#> 6 3.39e7 clis… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… Unicode sy… FALSE http…
#> 7 3.72e7 cmak… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… port of cm… TRUE http…
#> 8 6.80e7 cmark gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… CommonMark… TRUE http…
#> 9 6.32e7 cond… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… <NA> TRUE http…
#> 10 2.43e7 cray… gaborcsa… <nam… FALSE https:/… R package … FALSE http…
#> # … with 166 more rows, and 58 more variables: forks_url <chr>,
#> # keys_url <chr>, collaborators_url <chr>, teams_url <chr>,
#> # hooks_url <chr>, issue_events_url <chr>, events_url <chr>,
#> # assignees_url <chr>, branches_url <chr>, tags_url <chr>,
#> # blobs_url <chr>, git_tags_url <chr>, git_refs_url <chr>,
#> # trees_url <chr>, statuses_url <chr>, languages_url <chr>,
#> # stargazers_url <chr>, contributors_url <chr>, subscribers_url <chr>,
#> # subscription_url <chr>, commits_url <chr>, git_commits_url <chr>,
#> # comments_url <chr>, issue_comment_url <chr>, contents_url <chr>,
#> # compare_url <chr>, merges_url <chr>, archive_url <chr>,
#> # downloads_url <chr>, issues_url <chr>, pulls_url <chr>,
#> # milestones_url <chr>, notifications_url <chr>, labels_url <chr>,
#> # releases_url <chr>, deployments_url <chr>, created_at <chr>,
#> # updated_at <chr>, pushed_at <chr>, git_url <chr>, ssh_url <chr>,
#> # clone_url <chr>, svn_url <chr>, size <int>, stargazers_count <int>,
#> # watchers_count <int>, language <chr>, has_issues <lgl>,
#> # has_downloads <lgl>, has_wiki <lgl>, has_pages <lgl>,
#> # forks_count <int>, open_issues_count <int>, forks <int>,
#> # open_issues <int>, watchers <int>, default_branch <chr>,
#> # homepage <chr>Game of Thrones characters
got_chars has the same structure as gh_users: is a set of named lists, where each element of the internal list describes some attribute of a Game of Thrones character. Casting got_chars to a table view, we start by creating a date frame, just like in the previous examples, and then we will translate each element into a separate column:
chars <- tibble(char = got_chars)
chars
#> # A tibble: 30 x 1
#> char
#> <list>
#> 1 <named list [18]>
#> 2 <named list [18]>
#> 3 <named list [18]>
#> 4 <named list [18]>
#> 5 <named list [18]>
#> 6 <named list [18]>
#> 7 <named list [18]>
#> 8 <named list [18]>
#> 9 <named list [18]>
#> 10 <named list [18]>
#> # … with 20 more rows
chars2 <- chars %>% unnest_wider(char)
chars2
#> # A tibble: 30 x 18
#> url id name gender culture born died alive titles aliases father
#> <chr> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <lgl> <list> <list> <chr>
#> 1 http… 1022 Theo… Male Ironbo… In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 2 http… 1052 Tyri… Male "" In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 3 http… 1074 Vict… Male Ironbo… In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 4 http… 1109 Will Male "" "" In 2… FALSE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 5 http… 1166 Areo… Male Norvos… In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 6 http… 1267 Chett Male "" At H… In 2… FALSE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 7 http… 1295 Cres… Male "" In 2… In 2… FALSE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 8 http… 130 Aria… Female Dornish In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 9 http… 1303 Daen… Female Valyri… In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> 10 http… 1319 Davo… Male Wester… In 2… "" TRUE <chr … <chr [… ""
#> # … with 20 more rows, and 7 more variables: mother <chr>, spouse <chr>,
#> # allegiances <list>, books <list>, povBooks <list>, tvSeries <list>,
#> # playedBy <list> Structure got_chars somewhat more difficult than gh_users, because some list components char themselves are a list, as a result we get columns - lists:
chars2 %>% select_if(is.list)
#> # A tibble: 30 x 7
#> titles aliases allegiances books povBooks tvSeries playedBy
#> <list> <list> <list> <list> <list> <list> <list>
#> 1 <chr [3]> <chr [4]> <chr [1]> <chr [3]> <chr [2]> <chr [6]> <chr [1]>
#> 2 <chr [2]> <chr [11]> <chr [1]> <chr [2]> <chr [4]> <chr [6]> <chr [1]>
#> 3 <chr [2]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [3]> <chr [2]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]>
#> 4 <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <???> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]>
#> 5 <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [3]> <chr [2]> <chr [2]> <chr [1]>
#> 6 <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <???> <chr [2]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]>
#> 7 <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <???> <chr [2]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]>
#> 8 <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [4]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]>
#> 9 <chr [5]> <chr [11]> <chr [1]> <chr [1]> <chr [4]> <chr [6]> <chr [1]>
#> 10 <chr [4]> <chr [5]> <chr [2]> <chr [1]> <chr [3]> <chr [5]> <chr [1]>
#> # … with 20 more rowsYour further actions depend on the goals of the analysis. Perhaps you need to put information on each book and TV series in which the character appears on the lines:
chars2 %>%
select(name, books, tvSeries) %>%
pivot_longer(c(books, tvSeries), names_to = "media", values_to = "value") %>%
unnest_longer(value)
#> # A tibble: 180 x 3
#> name media value
#> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Theon Greyjoy books A Game of Thrones
#> 2 Theon Greyjoy books A Storm of Swords
#> 3 Theon Greyjoy books A Feast for Crows
#> 4 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 1
#> 5 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 2
#> 6 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 3
#> 7 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 4
#> 8 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 5
#> 9 Theon Greyjoy tvSeries Season 6
#> 10 Tyrion Lannister books A Feast for Crows
#> # … with 170 more rowsOr maybe you want to create a table that allows you to match character and work:
chars2 %>%
select(name, title = titles) %>%
unnest_longer(title)
#> # A tibble: 60 x 2
#> name title
#> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Theon Greyjoy Prince of Winterfell
#> 2 Theon Greyjoy Captain of Sea Bitch
#> 3 Theon Greyjoy Lord of the Iron Islands (by law of the green lands)
#> 4 Tyrion Lannister Acting Hand of the King (former)
#> 5 Tyrion Lannister Master of Coin (former)
#> 6 Victarion Greyjoy Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet
#> 7 Victarion Greyjoy Master of the Iron Victory
#> 8 Will ""
#> 9 Areo Hotah Captain of the Guard at Sunspear
#> 10 Chett ""
#> # … with 50 more rows(Note that empty values "" in the field title, this is due to errors made when entering data in got_chars: actually characters for which there are no corresponding book and TV series titles in the box title must have a vector of length 0, not a vector of length 1 containing the empty string.)
We can rewrite the above example using the function unnest_auto(). This approach is convenient for one-time analysis, but you should not rely on unnest_auto() for use on a regular basis. The thing is, if your data structure changes unnest_auto() can change the selected data transformation mechanism if it initially expanded list columns into rows using unnest_longer(), then when the structure of the incoming data changes, the logic can be changed in favor of unnest_wider(), and using this approach on a consistent basis can lead to unexpected errors.
tibble(char = got_chars) %>%
unnest_auto(char) %>%
select(name, title = titles) %>%
unnest_auto(title)
#> Using `unnest_wider(char)`; elements have 18 names in common
#> Using `unnest_longer(title)`; no element has names
#> # A tibble: 60 x 2
#> name title
#> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Theon Greyjoy Prince of Winterfell
#> 2 Theon Greyjoy Captain of Sea Bitch
#> 3 Theon Greyjoy Lord of the Iron Islands (by law of the green lands)
#> 4 Tyrion Lannister Acting Hand of the King (former)
#> 5 Tyrion Lannister Master of Coin (former)
#> 6 Victarion Greyjoy Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet
#> 7 Victarion Greyjoy Master of the Iron Victory
#> 8 Will ""
#> 9 Areo Hotah Captain of the Guard at Sunspear
#> 10 Chett ""
#> # … with 50 more rowsGeocoding with Google
Next, we will look at a more complex structure of data received from the Google geocoding service. Credential caching is against the terms of the Google maps API, so I'll write a simple API wrapper first. Which is based on storing the Google Maps API key in an environment variable; if you don't store the key to work with the Google Maps API in your environment variables, the code snippets presented in this section will not run.
has_key <- !identical(Sys.getenv("GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY"), "")
if (!has_key) {
message("No Google Maps API key found; code chunks will not be run")
}
# https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding
geocode <- function(address, api_key = Sys.getenv("GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY")) {
url <- "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json"
url <- paste0(url, "?address=", URLencode(address), "&key=", api_key)
jsonlite::read_json(url)
}The list that this function returns is quite complex:
houston <- geocode("Houston TX")
str(houston)
#> List of 2
#> $ results:List of 1
#> ..$ :List of 5
#> .. ..$ address_components:List of 4
#> .. .. ..$ :List of 3
#> .. .. .. ..$ long_name : chr "Houston"
#> .. .. .. ..$ short_name: chr "Houston"
#> .. .. .. ..$ types :List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "locality"
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "political"
#> .. .. ..$ :List of 3
#> .. .. .. ..$ long_name : chr "Harris County"
#> .. .. .. ..$ short_name: chr "Harris County"
#> .. .. .. ..$ types :List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "administrative_area_level_2"
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "political"
#> .. .. ..$ :List of 3
#> .. .. .. ..$ long_name : chr "Texas"
#> .. .. .. ..$ short_name: chr "TX"
#> .. .. .. ..$ types :List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "administrative_area_level_1"
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "political"
#> .. .. ..$ :List of 3
#> .. .. .. ..$ long_name : chr "United States"
#> .. .. .. ..$ short_name: chr "US"
#> .. .. .. ..$ types :List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "country"
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ : chr "political"
#> .. ..$ formatted_address : chr "Houston, TX, USA"
#> .. ..$ geometry :List of 4
#> .. .. ..$ bounds :List of 2
#> .. .. .. ..$ northeast:List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lat: num 30.1
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lng: num -95
#> .. .. .. ..$ southwest:List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lat: num 29.5
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lng: num -95.8
#> .. .. ..$ location :List of 2
#> .. .. .. ..$ lat: num 29.8
#> .. .. .. ..$ lng: num -95.4
#> .. .. ..$ location_type: chr "APPROXIMATE"
#> .. .. ..$ viewport :List of 2
#> .. .. .. ..$ northeast:List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lat: num 30.1
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lng: num -95
#> .. .. .. ..$ southwest:List of 2
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lat: num 29.5
#> .. .. .. .. ..$ lng: num -95.8
#> .. ..$ place_id : chr "ChIJAYWNSLS4QIYROwVl894CDco"
#> .. ..$ types :List of 2
#> .. .. ..$ : chr "locality"
#> .. .. ..$ : chr "political"
#> $ status : chr "OK"Fortunately, we can step by step solve the problem of converting this data to a tabular form using functions tidyr. To make the task a bit harder and more realistic, I'll start by geocoding a few cities:
city <- c ( "Houston" , "LA" , "New York" , "Chicago" , "Springfield" ) city_geo <- purrr::map (city, geocode) I will convert the result to tibble, for convenience I will add a column with the corresponding city name.
loc <- tibble(city = city, json = city_geo)
loc
#> # A tibble: 5 x 2
#> city json
#> <chr> <list>
#> 1 Houston <named list [2]>
#> 2 LA <named list [2]>
#> 3 New York <named list [2]>
#> 4 Chicago <named list [2]>
#> 5 Springfield <named list [2]>The first level contains components status и result, which we can expand with unnest_wider() :
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 3
#> city results status
#> <chr> <list> <chr>
#> 1 Houston <list [1]> OK
#> 2 LA <list [1]> OK
#> 3 New York <list [1]> OK
#> 4 Chicago <list [1]> OK
#> 5 Springfield <list [1]> OKNote that results is a multilevel list. Most cities have 1 element (representing a unique value according to the geocoding API), but Springfield has two. We can pull them out into separate lines with unnest_longer() :
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json) %>%
unnest_longer(results)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 3
#> city results status
#> <chr> <list> <chr>
#> 1 Houston <named list [5]> OK
#> 2 LA <named list [5]> OK
#> 3 New York <named list [5]> OK
#> 4 Chicago <named list [5]> OK
#> 5 Springfield <named list [5]> OKNow they all have the same components, as you can see with unnest_wider():
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json) %>%
unnest_longer(results) %>%
unnest_wider(results)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 7
#> city address_componen… formatted_addre… geometry place_id types status
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <list> <chr> <lis> <chr>
#> 1 Houst… <list [4]> Houston, TX, USA <named … ChIJAYWN… <lis… OK
#> 2 LA <list [4]> Los Angeles, CA… <named … ChIJE9on… <lis… OK
#> 3 New Y… <list [3]> New York, NY, U… <named … ChIJOwg_… <lis… OK
#> 4 Chica… <list [4]> Chicago, IL, USA <named … ChIJ7cv0… <lis… OK
#> 5 Sprin… <list [5]> Springfield, MO… <named … ChIJP5jI… <lis… OKWe can find the latitude and longitude coordinates of each city by expanding the list geometry:
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json) %>%
unnest_longer(results) %>%
unnest_wider(results) %>%
unnest_wider(geometry)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 10
#> city address_compone… formatted_addre… bounds location location_type
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <list> <list> <chr>
#> 1 Hous… <list [4]> Houston, TX, USA <name… <named … APPROXIMATE
#> 2 LA <list [4]> Los Angeles, CA… <name… <named … APPROXIMATE
#> 3 New … <list [3]> New York, NY, U… <name… <named … APPROXIMATE
#> 4 Chic… <list [4]> Chicago, IL, USA <name… <named … APPROXIMATE
#> 5 Spri… <list [5]> Springfield, MO… <name… <named … APPROXIMATE
#> # … with 4 more variables: viewport <list>, place_id <chr>, types <list>,
#> # status <chr>And then the location for which you want to deploy location:
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json) %>%
unnest_longer(results) %>%
unnest_wider(results) %>%
unnest_wider(geometry) %>%
unnest_wider(location)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 11
#> city address_compone… formatted_addre… bounds lat lng location_type
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <list> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 Hous… <list [4]> Houston, TX, USA <name… 29.8 -95.4 APPROXIMATE
#> 2 LA <list [4]> Los Angeles, CA… <name… 34.1 -118. APPROXIMATE
#> 3 New … <list [3]> New York, NY, U… <name… 40.7 -74.0 APPROXIMATE
#> 4 Chic… <list [4]> Chicago, IL, USA <name… 41.9 -87.6 APPROXIMATE
#> 5 Spri… <list [5]> Springfield, MO… <name… 37.2 -93.3 APPROXIMATE
#> # … with 4 more variables: viewport <list>, place_id <chr>, types <list>,
#> # status <chr>Yet again, unnest_auto() simplifies the described operation with some risks that may be caused by changing the structure of the incoming data:
loc %>%
unnest_auto(json) %>%
unnest_auto(results) %>%
unnest_auto(results) %>%
unnest_auto(geometry) %>%
unnest_auto(location)
#> Using `unnest_wider(json)`; elements have 2 names in common
#> Using `unnest_longer(results)`; no element has names
#> Using `unnest_wider(results)`; elements have 5 names in common
#> Using `unnest_wider(geometry)`; elements have 4 names in common
#> Using `unnest_wider(location)`; elements have 2 names in common
#> # A tibble: 5 x 11
#> city address_compone… formatted_addre… bounds lat lng location_type
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <list> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 Hous… <list [4]> Houston, TX, USA <name… 29.8 -95.4 APPROXIMATE
#> 2 LA <list [4]> Los Angeles, CA… <name… 34.1 -118. APPROXIMATE
#> 3 New … <list [3]> New York, NY, U… <name… 40.7 -74.0 APPROXIMATE
#> 4 Chic… <list [4]> Chicago, IL, USA <name… 41.9 -87.6 APPROXIMATE
#> 5 Spri… <list [5]> Springfield, MO… <name… 37.2 -93.3 APPROXIMATE
#> # … with 4 more variables: viewport <list>, place_id <chr>, types <list>,
#> # status <chr>We can also just look at the first address for each city:
loc %>%
unnest_wider(json) %>%
hoist(results, first_result = 1) %>%
unnest_wider(first_result) %>%
unnest_wider(geometry) %>%
unnest_wider(location)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 11
#> city address_compone… formatted_addre… bounds lat lng location_type
#> <chr> <list> <chr> <list> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 Hous… <list [4]> Houston, TX, USA <name… 29.8 -95.4 APPROXIMATE
#> 2 LA <list [4]> Los Angeles, CA… <name… 34.1 -118. APPROXIMATE
#> 3 New … <list [3]> New York, NY, U… <name… 40.7 -74.0 APPROXIMATE
#> 4 Chic… <list [4]> Chicago, IL, USA <name… 41.9 -87.6 APPROXIMATE
#> 5 Spri… <list [5]> Springfield, MO… <name… 37.2 -93.3 APPROXIMATE
#> # … with 4 more variables: viewport <list>, place_id <chr>, types <list>,
#> # status <chr>Or use hoist() for a multi-level dive, to go directly to lat и lng.
loc %>%
hoist(json,
lat = list("results", 1, "geometry", "location", "lat"),
lng = list("results", 1, "geometry", "location", "lng")
)
#> # A tibble: 5 x 4
#> city lat lng json
#> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <list>
#> 1 Houston 29.8 -95.4 <named list [2]>
#> 2 LA 34.1 -118. <named list [2]>
#> 3 New York 40.7 -74.0 <named list [2]>
#> 4 Chicago 41.9 -87.6 <named list [2]>
#> 5 Springfield 37.2 -93.3 <named list [2]>Sharla Gelfand discography
In conclusion, we will consider the most complex construction - Sharla Gelfand's discography. As in the examples above, we start by converting the list into a single-column data frame, and then expand it so that each component is a separate column. Also I will convert the column date_added to the appropriate date and time format in R.
discs <- tibble(disc = discog) %>%
unnest_wider(disc) %>%
mutate(date_added = as.POSIXct(strptime(date_added, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")))
discs
#> # A tibble: 155 x 5
#> instance_id date_added basic_information id rating
#> <int> <dttm> <list> <int> <int>
#> 1 354823933 2019-02-16 17:48:59 <named list [11]> 7496378 0
#> 2 354092601 2019-02-13 14:13:11 <named list [11]> 4490852 0
#> 3 354091476 2019-02-13 14:07:23 <named list [11]> 9827276 0
#> 4 351244906 2019-02-02 11:39:58 <named list [11]> 9769203 0
#> 5 351244801 2019-02-02 11:39:37 <named list [11]> 7237138 0
#> 6 351052065 2019-02-01 20:40:53 <named list [11]> 13117042 0
#> 7 350315345 2019-01-29 15:48:37 <named list [11]> 7113575 0
#> 8 350315103 2019-01-29 15:47:22 <named list [11]> 10540713 0
#> 9 350314507 2019-01-29 15:44:08 <named list [11]> 11260950 0
#> 10 350314047 2019-01-29 15:41:35 <named list [11]> 11726853 0
#> # … with 145 more rowsAt this level, we have information about when each disc was added to Sharla's discography, but we do not see any data about these discs. For this we need to expand the column basic_information:
discs %>% unnest_wider(basic_information)
#> Column name `id` must not be duplicated.
#> Use .name_repair to specify repair.Unfortunately, we will get an error, because inside the list basic_information there is a single column basic_information. If such an error occurs, in order to quickly determine its cause, you can use names_repair = "unique":
discs %>% unnest_wider(basic_information, names_repair = "unique")
#> New names:
#> * id -> id...6
#> * id -> id...14
#> # A tibble: 155 x 15
#> instance_id date_added labels year artists id...6 thumb title
#> <int> <dttm> <list> <int> <list> <int> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 354823933 2019-02-16 17:48:59 <list… 2015 <list … 7.50e6 http… Demo
#> 2 354092601 2019-02-13 14:13:11 <list… 2013 <list … 4.49e6 http… Obse…
#> 3 354091476 2019-02-13 14:07:23 <list… 2017 <list … 9.83e6 http… I
#> 4 351244906 2019-02-02 11:39:58 <list… 2017 <list … 9.77e6 http… Oído…
#> 5 351244801 2019-02-02 11:39:37 <list… 2015 <list … 7.24e6 http… A Ca…
#> 6 351052065 2019-02-01 20:40:53 <list… 2019 <list … 1.31e7 http… Tash…
#> 7 350315345 2019-01-29 15:48:37 <list… 2014 <list … 7.11e6 http… Demo
#> 8 350315103 2019-01-29 15:47:22 <list… 2015 <list … 1.05e7 http… Let …
#> 9 350314507 2019-01-29 15:44:08 <list… 2017 <list … 1.13e7 "" Sub …
#> 10 350314047 2019-01-29 15:41:35 <list… 2017 <list … 1.17e7 http… Demo
#> # … with 145 more rows, and 7 more variables: formats <list>,
#> # cover_image <chr>, resource_url <chr>, master_id <int>,
#> # master_url <chr>, id...14 <int>, rating <int>The problem is that basic_information echoes the id column which is also stored at the top level, so we can just remove it:
discs %>%
select(-id) %>%
unnest_wider(basic_information)
#> # A tibble: 155 x 14
#> instance_id date_added labels year artists id thumb title
#> <int> <dttm> <list> <int> <list> <int> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 354823933 2019-02-16 17:48:59 <list… 2015 <list … 7.50e6 http… Demo
#> 2 354092601 2019-02-13 14:13:11 <list… 2013 <list … 4.49e6 http… Obse…
#> 3 354091476 2019-02-13 14:07:23 <list… 2017 <list … 9.83e6 http… I
#> 4 351244906 2019-02-02 11:39:58 <list… 2017 <list … 9.77e6 http… Oído…
#> 5 351244801 2019-02-02 11:39:37 <list… 2015 <list … 7.24e6 http… A Ca…
#> 6 351052065 2019-02-01 20:40:53 <list… 2019 <list … 1.31e7 http… Tash…
#> 7 350315345 2019-01-29 15:48:37 <list… 2014 <list … 7.11e6 http… Demo
#> 8 350315103 2019-01-29 15:47:22 <list… 2015 <list … 1.05e7 http… Let …
#> 9 350314507 2019-01-29 15:44:08 <list… 2017 <list … 1.13e7 "" Sub …
#> 10 350314047 2019-01-29 15:41:35 <list… 2017 <list … 1.17e7 http… Demo
#> # … with 145 more rows, and 6 more variables: formats <list>,
#> # cover_image <chr>, resource_url <chr>, master_id <int>,
#> # master_url <chr>, rating <int>Alternatively, we could use hoist():
discs %>%
hoist(basic_information,
title = "title",
year = "year",
label = list("labels", 1, "name"),
artist = list("artists", 1, "name")
)
#> # A tibble: 155 x 9
#> instance_id date_added title year label artist
#> <int> <dttm> <chr> <int> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 354823933 2019-02-16 17:48:59 Demo 2015 Tobi… Mollot
#> 2 354092601 2019-02-13 14:13:11 Obse… 2013 La V… Una B…
#> 3 354091476 2019-02-13 14:07:23 I 2017 La V… S.H.I…
#> 4 351244906 2019-02-02 11:39:58 Oído… 2017 La V… Rata …
#> 5 351244801 2019-02-02 11:39:37 A Ca… 2015 Kato… Ivy (…
#> 6 351052065 2019-02-01 20:40:53 Tash… 2019 High… Tashme
#> 7 350315345 2019-01-29 15:48:37 Demo 2014 Mind… Desgr…
#> 8 350315103 2019-01-29 15:47:22 Let … 2015 Not … Phant…
#> 9 350314507 2019-01-29 15:44:08 Sub … 2017 Not … Sub S…
#> 10 350314047 2019-01-29 15:41:35 Demo 2017 Pres… Small…
#> # … with 145 more rows, and 3 more variables: basic_information <list>,
#> # id <int>, rating <int>Here I am quickly extracting the name of the first label and artist by index, diving into a nested list.
A more systematic approach is to create separate tables for artist and label:
discs %>%
hoist(basic_information, artist = "artists") %>%
select(disc_id = id, artist) %>%
unnest_longer(artist) %>%
unnest_wider(artist)
#> # A tibble: 167 x 8
#> disc_id join name anv tracks role resource_url id
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <int>
#> 1 7496378 "" Mollot "" "" "" https://api.discog… 4.62e6
#> 2 4490852 "" Una Bèstia… "" "" "" https://api.discog… 3.19e6
#> 3 9827276 "" S.H.I.T. (… "" "" "" https://api.discog… 2.77e6
#> 4 9769203 "" Rata Negra "" "" "" https://api.discog… 4.28e6
#> 5 7237138 "" Ivy (18) "" "" "" https://api.discog… 3.60e6
#> 6 13117042 "" Tashme "" "" "" https://api.discog… 5.21e6
#> 7 7113575 "" Desgraciad… "" "" "" https://api.discog… 4.45e6
#> 8 10540713 "" Phantom He… "" "" "" https://api.discog… 4.27e6
#> 9 11260950 "" Sub Space … "" "" "" https://api.discog… 5.69e6
#> 10 11726853 "" Small Man … "" "" "" https://api.discog… 6.37e6
#> # … with 157 more rows
discs %>%
hoist(basic_information, format = "formats") %>%
select(disc_id = id, format) %>%
unnest_longer(format) %>%
unnest_wider(format) %>%
unnest_longer(descriptions)
#> # A tibble: 280 x 5
#> disc_id descriptions text name qty
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 7496378 Numbered Black Cassette 1
#> 2 4490852 LP <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 3 9827276 "7"" <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 4 9827276 45 RPM <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 5 9827276 EP <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 6 9769203 LP <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 7 9769203 Album <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 8 7237138 "7"" <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 9 7237138 45 RPM <NA> Vinyl 1
#> 10 13117042 "7"" <NA> Vinyl 1
#> # … with 270 more rowsYou can then join them back to the original dataset as needed.
Conclusion
To the core of the library tidyverse includes many useful packages united by a common philosophy of data processing.
In this article, we have analyzed the family of functions unnest_*(), which are designed to work with extracting elements from nested lists. This package contains many other useful features that make it easy to convert data according to the concept Tidy Data.
Source: habr.com