Use tidy-select to create a new summary variable with mutate

April 1, 2024

I am trying to make the creation of a summary column within my data "future proof" for the case that another variable is added to the dataset. For this I tried using tidy-select language, but failed to accomplish this. a minimal example is:

variables = c("v1", "v2")
tst = tribble(
  ~ID, ~time, ~v1, ~v2,
  "1a", 1,  T,  F,
  "1b", 1,  F,  T,
  "1c", 1,  F,  F,
  "1a", 2,  T,  F,
  "1b", 2,  T,  T,
  "1c", 2,  F,  F
)

tst %>%
  group_by(ID, time) %>%
  mutate(any_v = any(v1,v2)) # works

tst %>%
  group_by(ID, time) %>%
  mutate(any_v = any(all_of(variables))) # this doesnt work!

What I am trying to achieve is a case, where a variable "v3" could be added to the tribble and the variables vector, while the mutate call can stay as is. Any help is appreciated!

I tried already most of the tidy-select language, but i am no expert here

>Solution :

Use pick() to pull out those columns

tst %>%
  group_by(ID, time) %>%
  mutate(any_v = any(pick(all_of(variables)))) 
#   ID     time v1    v2    any_v
#   <chr> <dbl> <lgl> <lgl> <lgl>
# 1 1a        1 TRUE  FALSE TRUE 
# 2 1b        1 FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 3 1c        1 FALSE FALSE FALSE
# 4 1a        2 TRUE  FALSE TRUE 
# 5 1b        2 TRUE  TRUE  TRUE 
# 6 1c        2 FALSE FALSE FALSE

You will get the same answer if you add v3 with all TRUE values

tst %>%
  mutate(v3=TRUE) %>% 
  group_by(ID, time) %>%
  mutate(any_v = any(pick(all_of(variables))))
#   ID     time v1    v2    v3    any_v
#   <chr> <dbl> <lgl> <lgl> <lgl> <lgl>
# 1 1a        1 TRUE  FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 2 1b        1 FALSE TRUE  TRUE  TRUE 
# 3 1c        1 FALSE FALSE TRUE  FALSE
# 4 1a        2 TRUE  FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 5 1b        2 TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE 
# 6 1c        2 FALSE FALSE TRUE  FALSE

Or if you just always wanted to use any column that start with "v", use

tst %>%
  mutate(v3=TRUE) %>% 
  group_by(ID, time) %>%
  mutate(any_v = any(pick(starts_with("v"))))
#   ID     time v1    v2    v3    any_v
#   <chr> <dbl> <lgl> <lgl> <lgl> <lgl>
# 1 1a        1 TRUE  FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 2 1b        1 FALSE TRUE  TRUE  TRUE 
# 3 1c        1 FALSE FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 4 1a        2 TRUE  FALSE TRUE  TRUE 
# 5 1b        2 TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE 
# 6 1c        2 FALSE FALSE TRUE  TRUE