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Generate A DataFrame of Units and Target by Characteristic Name

Source: R/UnitConversions.R
TADA_CreateUnitRef.Rd

Creates a dataframe of unique characteristic/unit pairs and fills target unit and conversion factors where possible. This reference can be edited and used by TADA_ConvertResultUnits to standardize units by characteristic.

Usage

TADA_CreateUnitRef(.data, message = TRUE)

Arguments

.data

TADA dataframe

message

Logical. If TRUE (default), prints a message listing any characteristics (TADA.CharacteristicName) that have more than one target unit.

Value

A dataframe with the following columns:

  • TADA.CharacteristicName

  • ResultMeasure.MeasureUnitCode (if available in the input; optional)

  • TADA.ResultMeasure.MeasureUnitCode (normalized canonical name)

  • TADA.Target.ResultMeasure.MeasureUnitCode

  • TADA.WQXUnitConversionFactor

  • TADA.WQXUnitConversionCoefficient

Details

Notes:

  • Handles both prefixed and unprefixed unit columns (TADA.ResultMeasure.MeasureUnitCode and ResultMeasure.MeasureUnitCode). Internally normalizes to the TADA-prefixed name.

  • Incorporates units observed only in detection-limit fields to support censored-data workflows.

  • USGS unit synonyms (including units with speciation embedded) are normalized via TADA_GetUSGSSynonymRef. This facilitates moving speciation from units to TADA.MethodSpeciationName in TADA_ConvertResultUnits.

  • WQX unit reference (TADA_GetMeasureUnitRef) provides default conversions, while TADA priority references (TADAPriorityCharUnitRef.csv and TADAPriorityCharConvertRef.csv) allow characteristic-specific targets and conversions that can override WQX defaults when necessary.

  • For characteristics with multiple target units (e.g., fundamentally different unit families), an informational message is displayed in the console.

The columns created by TADA_AutoClean are required to run this function. If they are not present in the dataframe, TADA_AutoClean is automatically run before the unit reference dataframe is created.

Examples

# Load example dataset:
utils::data(Data_Nutrients_UT)
# Create a unit reference dataframe
UT_UnitRef <- TADA_CreateUnitRef(Data_Nutrients_UT)
#> TADA.CreateUnitRef: The following characteristics have more than one listed target unit: NITROGEN (MG/L and NONE) and NITRATE (MG/L and NONE). This may be due to units of different types that cannot be converted to match each other. You may wish to review the output of TADA.CreateUnitRef and edit it.