---
title: EDA demos
tags: statistical-software-demos, statistical-software
robots: noindex, nofollow
---

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) - Demonstration Application of Standards
========================================================================

This file demonstrates the application of
[rOpenSci](https://ropensci.org) ’s [standards for statistical
software](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html)
to three [EDA
software](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#exploratory-data-analysis)
packages. These applications are not intended to represent or reflect
evaluations or assessment of the packages, and particularly not of the
extent to which they fail to meet standards. Rather, the demonstrations
are intended to highlight aspects of the software which could be
productively improved by adhering to the standards, and thereby more
generally to demonstrate the general usefulness of these standards in
advancing and improving software quality.

Prior to considering these demonstrations, it is recommended to peruse a
recent article which appeared in the R Journal entitled, [*The Landscape
of R Packages for Automated Exploratory Data
Analysis*](https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2019/RJ-2019-033/index.html).
A general overview of the packages mentioned in that article is also
provided in this [github repository
(work-in-progres)](https://github.com/m-clark/exploratory-data-analysis-tools).

[`SmartEDA`](https://github.com/daya6489/SmartEDA)
--------------------------------------------------

This package conveniently offers a single “master function”,
`ExpReport`, which generates a stand-alone `html` report containing the
output of most of the package’s functions. The current README of the
[`autotest` package](https://github.com/mpadge/autotest) includes an
example of this package which demonstrates a failure of this package to
appropriate process or reject rectangular input objects which have
list-columns.

### 1 [General Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#general-standards-for-statistical-software)

#### 1.1 Documentation

- [x] **G1.0** Primary reference is provided

**Statistical Terminology**

- [x] **G1.1** Statistical terminology appropriately clarified and
defined.

**Function-level Documentation**

- [x] **G1.2** Software uses [`roxygen`](https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/)
- [ ] **G1.2a** internal functions are not appropriately
documented

**Supplementary Documentation**

- [x] **G1.3** No performance claims made so not relevant
- [ ] **G1.4** Comparisons with other packages in documentation, yet
code not provided.

#### 1.2 Input Structures

**Uni-variate (Vector) Input**

- [ ] **G2.0** No documentation on expected lengths of any input
variables
- [x] **G2.1** Types of most inputs clearly documented
- [ ] **G2.2** (Not yet implemented in `autotest`, but will be
confirmed there.)
- [ ] **G2.3** `match.arg()` not used for single-valued character
inputs, nor is `tolower()` or equivalent used to avoid sensitivity
to case.
- [x] **G2.4** Not applicable
- [ ] **G2.5** No mention of how factors are handled

**Tabular Input**

- [x] **G2.6** All standard input forms accepted
- [ ] **G2.7** (Not yet checked)
- [x] **G2.8** Not applicable
- [x] **G2.9** Different classes of tabular input yield consistent
results

**Missing or Undefined Values**

- [x] **G2.10** Missing data appropriately handled
- [x] **G2.11** No user control over missing data needed here
- [x] **G2.12** All missing data appropriately pre-processed
- [x] **G2.13** Undefined values appropriately handled, although no
options provided to remove them, even though such options could be
useful here.

#### 1.3 Output Structures

- [ ] **G4.0** File name specifications (in `ExpReport()` function)
**not** appropriately parsed, rather simply assumed to be `*.html`.

#### 1.4 Testing

**Test Data Sets**

- [x] **G5.0** Tests use data sets provided by other widely-used R
packages.
- [x] **G5.1** No data sets created within package, so not applicable

**Responses to Unexpected Input**

- [ ] **G5.2**–**G5.3** Tests of responses to unexpected input either
not given, or do not cover all cases.

**Algorithm Tests**

- [x] **G5.4**–**G5.7** Standards for testing statistical algorithms
not applicable to EDA software
- [ ] **G5.8** No edge condition tests implemented
- [ ] **G5.9** No tests of noise susceptibility implemented

**Extended tests**

- [x] **G5.10**–**5.12** No extended tests needed, so not applicable

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### 2 [EDA Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#exploratory-data-analysis)

#### 2.1 Documentation Standards

- [x] EA1.0 No target audience explicitly specified, but abilities of
package sufficiently clearly explained to obviate this.
- [ ] EA1.1 No target kinds of data explicitly specified, and they
should be.
- [ ] EA1.2 No target questions explicitly identified, but purpose of
package is clearly the exploration of *associative* relationships.
- [x] **EA1.3** The kinds of data each function is intended to accept
as input are generally specified.

#### 2.2 Input Data

**Index Columns**

- [x] EA2.0-2.3 No table filtering or joining performed, so not
relevant

**Multi-tabular input**

- [x] EA2.4-2.5 No multi-tabular input possible, so not relevant

**Classes and Sub-Classes**

- [x] EA2.6-2.9 Software performs to these standards, as indicated by
output of [`autotest`](https://github.com/ropenscilabs/autotest).

#### 2.3 Analytic Algorithms

#### 2.4 Return Results / Output Data

- [ ] EA4.0 `integer` input types not maintained, rather all values
are converted to `numeric`.
- [x] EA4.1 Control of numeric precision is explicitly provided
throughout, with sensible default values.
- [ ] EA4.2 Default `print` methods apply to all return objects, but
default `plot` methods either fail (for `ExpData`), or are not
accessible (for `ExpNumStat`, `ExpCTable`, and others, which rely on
`plot.default`, and so simply plot a grid of *ncol*-by-*ncol*
results, often with no labels to enable interpretation).

#### 2.5 Visualization and Summary Output

- [x] EA5.0-5.1 Explicit graphical output, for example from
`ExpNumViz` and `ExpCatViz` functions, provides accessible colour
schemes, as well as allowing overrides of defaults through
additional parameters.

**Summary and Screen-based Output**

- [x] EA5.2 Screen-based output has sensibly printed numeric digits,
defaulting to 3.
- [ ] EA5.3 Column-based summary statistics do not indicate the
`storage.mode`

**General Standards for Visualization (Static and Dynamic)**

- [ ] EA5.4 The default plotted output of `ExpNumViz` includes no
scale

#### 2.6 Testing

**Return Values**

- [ ] **EA6.0** Return values from functions generally not tested,
including
- [ ] **EA6.0a** No tests for classes or types of objects
- [ ] **EA6.0b** No tests for dimensions of tabular objects
- [ ] **EA6.0c** No tests for column names (or equivalent) of
tabular objects
- [ ] **EA6.0d** No tests for classes or types of all columns
contained within `data.frame`-type tabular objects
- [ ] **EA6.0e** Tests for equality of single-valued objects do
not use a tolerance parameter

**Graphical Output**

- [ ] **EA6.1** properties of graphical output are not tested, merely
that output is produced.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[`insight`](https://github.com/easystats/insight)
-------------------------------------------------

### 3 [General Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#general-standards-for-statistical-software)

#### 3.1 Documentation

- [x] **G1.0** Primary reference is provided

**Statistical Terminology**

- [x] **G1.1** Statistical terminology clarified and defined.

**Function-level Documentation**

- [x] **G1.2** [`roxygen`](https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/) used to
document all functions.
- [ ] **G1.2a** Internal functions generally not sufficiently
documented

**Supplementary Documentation**

- [x] **G1.3** No performance claims made, so not relevant

#### 3.2 Input Structures

**Uni-variate (Vector) Input**

- [ ] **G2.0 Expected lengths** of inputs are generally not documented
- [ ] **G2.1 Expected ***data types* of vector inputs not documented
(for example, the character vectors for `component` arguments of the
`find_...()` functions).
- [ ] **G2.2 There are** no checks or restrictions on parameters
expected to be univariate.
- [ ] **G2.3 No checks** implemented for assumed single-valued
character input
- [ ] **G2.3a** `match.arg()` is not used
- [ ] **G2.3b** `tolower()` is not used to avoid sensitivity to
case
- [ ] **G2.4** Provide appropriate mechanisms to convert between
different *data types*, potentially including:
- [ ] **G2.4a** There is no explicit conversion to `integer` via
`as.integer()`
- [x] **G2.4b** There is explicit conversion to continuous via
`as.numeric()`
- [x] **G2.4c** explicit conversion to character uses
`as.character()`
- [x] **G2.4d** explicit conversion to factor uses `as.factor()`
- [x] **G2.4e** explicit conversion from factor uses `as...()`
functions
- [x] **G2.5** No inputs are expected to be of `factor` type, so not
applicable

**Tabular Input**

- [x] **G2.6**–**G2.9** No functions accept rectangular input, so not
applicable

**Missing or Undefined Values**

- [x] **G2.10**–**G2.13** No functions accept data able to contain
missing or undefined values, so not applicable

#### 3.3 Output Structures

- [x] **G4.0** No functions use local files, so not appicable

#### 3.4 Testing

**Test Data Sets**

- [x] **G5.0** Tests use data sets provided by other widely-used R
packages.
- [x] **G5.1** No data sets created within package, so not applicable

**Responses to Unexpected Input**

- [ ] **G5.2** Error and warning behaviour of functions is not
explicitly tested.
- [ ] **G5.3** Absence of missing or undefined values in return
objects is not explicitly tested.

**Algorithm Tests**

- [x] **G5.4**–**G5.7** Standards for testing statistical algorithms
not applicable to EDA software
- [x] **G5.8** Input to software is models not raw data, so edge
conditions neither relevant nor applicable.
- [x] **G5.9** Input to software is models not raw data, so noise
tests neither relevant nor applicable.

**Extended tests**

- [x] **G5.10**–**G5.12** Extended tests neither relevant nor
applicable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### 4 [EDA Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#exploratory-data-analysis)

#### 4.1 Documentation Standards

- [x] **EA1.0** Target audiences clearly identified
- [x] **EA1.1** The kinds of data the software is capable of analysing
clearly identified
- [x] **EA1.2** The kinds of questions the software is intended to
help explore are clearly identified
- [x] **EA1.3** The kinds of data each function is intended to accept
as input are clearly identified

#### 4.2 Input Data

- [x] **EA2.0**–**EA2.9** The software does not accept general inputs,
so not applicable

#### 4.3 Return Results / Output Data

- [x] **EA4.0** Generally not applicable, as almost all model
parameters are `numeric`, although `get_random()` does return
`factor` for `factor` input, so standard met in that regard.
- [x] **EA4.1** Parameters to enable explicit control of numeric
precision are not directly implemented, rather the package offers a
suite of `format_` functions to specify such.
- [x] **EA4.2** Primary routines return objects for which default
`print` and `plot` methods give sensible results, and also implement
additional `print_` and `format_` methods.

#### 4.4 Visualization and Summary Output

- [x] **EA5.0**–**EA5.1** There are no `plot` or other graphical
functions.

**Summary and Screen-based Output**

- [ ] **EA5.2** Screen-based output follows `getOption("digits")`, and
so uses default print formatting for `numeric` types, with no user
control possible.
- [ ] **EA5.3** Column-based summary statistics do not indicate the
`storage.mode`, `class`, or equivalent defining attribute of each
column.

**General Standards for Visualization (Static and Dynamic)**

- [x] **EA5.4**–**EA5.5** There are no visualisations, so not relevant

#### 4.5 Testing

- [x] **EA6.0** Return values from all functions are tested
- [x] **EA6.1** No graphical output produced, so no need to test

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[`naniar`](https://github.com/njtierney/naniar)
-----------------------------------------------

### 5 [General Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#general-standards-for-statistical-software)

#### 5.1 Documentation

- [ ] **G1.0** Not primary reference given

**Statistical Terminology**

- [x] **G1.1** Statistical terminology appropriately clarified

**Function-level Documentation**

- [x] **G1.2** *Software should use
[`roxygen`](https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/) to document all functions.*
- [ ] **G1.2a** A scarce few internal functions are not be
documented in [`roxygen`](https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/) format

**Supplementary Documentation**

- [x] **G1.3** No performance claims make so not relevant.

#### 5.2 Input Structures

**Uni-variate (Vector) Input**

- [ ] **G2.0** There is no documentation of expectations on lengths of
inputs
- [ ] **G2.1** Provide explicit secondary documentation of
expectations on *data types* of all vector inputs (see the above
list).
- [ ] **G2.2** Lengths of parameters expected to be univariate are not
checked, and lead to uninformative errors (for example, `missing`
parameter of [`add_any_miss()`
function](http://naniar.njtierney.com/reference/add_any_miss.html)).
- [x] **G2.3** No single-valued character parameters used, so not
applicable.
- [x] **G2.4** Provide appropriate mechanisms to convert between
different *data types*, potentially including:
- [x] **G2.4a** explicit conversion to `integer` uses
`as.integer()`
- [x] **G2.4b** explicit conversion to continuous uses
`as.numeric()`
- [x] **G2.4c** There is no explicit conversion to character, so
not applicable `paste` or `paste0`)
- [x] **G2.4d** There is no explicit conversion to factor, so not
applicable
- [x] **G2.4e** There is no explicit conversion from factor, so
not applicable
- [x] **G2.5** No inputs expected to be of `factor` type, so not
applicable.

**Tabular Input**

- [ ] **G2.6** `naniar` does not accept `matrix`/`array` input, even
though it easily could.
- [ ] **G2.7** There is no initial pre-processing to ensure that all
other sub-functions of a package receive inputs of a single defined
type.
- [ ] **G2.8** There is no type conversion, so no diagnostic messages
for type conversion are issued.
- [x] **G2.9** Extraction/filtering of single columns from tabular
inputs behaves appropriately regardless of input class.

**Missing or Undefined Values**

- [x] **G2.10** Checks for missing data are a core part of every
routine
- [x] **G2.11** Most functions provide multiple, custom options for
handling missing
- [x] **G2.12** No functions assume non-missingness
- [ ] **G2.13** No functions appropriately handle undefined values
other than `NA`. `NaN` is treated exactly as `NA`, and `Inf` is
simply ignored.

#### 5.3 Output Structures

- [x] **G4.0** There are no outputs written to local files, so not
applicable

#### 5.4 Testing

**Test Data Sets**

- [x] **G5.0** Tests use data sets provided by other widely-used R
packages.
- [x] **G5.1** No data sets created within package, so not applicable
exported so that users can confirm tests and run examples.

**Responses to Unexpected Input**

- [ ] **G5.2** Error and warning behaviour not tested for all
functions
- [x] **G5.3** Absence of missing or undefined values is tested

**Algorithm Tests**

- [x] **G5.4**–**G5.8** Standards for testing statistical algorithms
not applicable to EDA software
- [x] **G5.8** Edge conditions tested appropriately
- [x] **G5.9** Test of noise susceptibility not applicable

**Extended tests**

- [x] **G5.10**–**G5.12** Extended tests neither relevant nor
applicable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### 6 [EDA Standards](https://ropenscilabs.github.io/statistical-software-review-book/standards.html#exploratory-data-analysis)

#### 6.1 Documentation Standards

- [ ] EA1.0 The software does not identify any target audiences for
whom it is intended
- [ ] EA1.1 The software does not explicitly identify the kinds of
data it is capable of analysing, rather refers to all inputs as
(variously and either), “data frame” or “data.frame”, even though
any rectangular inputs are accepted.
- [x] EA1.2 The software clearly identifies the kinds of questions it
is intended to help explore
- [ ] EA1.3 The software does not identify the kinds of data each
function is intended to accept as input (see EA1.1, above).

#### 6.2 Input Data

**Index Columns**

- [x] EA2.0–2.2 Software does not rely on index columns
- [x] EA2.3 Table join operations are not based on any assumed
variable or column names, rather are only performed on inputs
generated internally within the package to have standard format.

**Multi-tabular input**

- [x] EA2.4–EA2.5 Package does not use or admit multi-tabular input

**Classes and Sub-Classes**

- [x] EA2.6 Routines appropriately process vector input of custom
classes
- [x] EA2.7 Routines appropriately process vector data regardless of
additional attributes
- [x] EA2.8 Routines appropriately process rectangular input of custom
classes
- [x] EA2.9 Routines accept and appropriately process rectangular
input with columns of custom sub-classes including additional
attributes.

#### 6.3 Analytic Algorithms

#### 6.4 Return Results / Output Data

- [ ] EA4.0 Software does not ensure all return results have types
which are consistent with input types, rather returns all results as
`tibble` objects regardless of class of input.
- [x] EA4.1 Universal use of `tibble` classes ensures explicit control
of numeric precision
- [x] EA4.2 Universal use of `tibble` classes ensures default `print`
and `plot` methods give sensible results.

#### 6.5 Visualization and Summary Output

- [x] EA5.0 Graphical presentation is as accessible as possible or
practicable.
- [x] EA5.1 Typefaces appear to consider accessibility

**Summary and Screen-based Output**

- [x] EA5.2 Screen-based output does not rely on default print
formatting of `numeric` types, rather relies on `print.tibble`
throughout.
- [x] EA5.3 Column-based summary statistics always indicates the
`storage.mode` via `tibble`.

**General Standards for Visualization (Static and Dynamic)**

- [ ] EA5.4 Visualisations do not include units on all axes, but do
use `ggplot2` to produce sensibly rounded values.

**Dynamic Visualization**

- [x] EA5.5 There are no routines for dynamic visualization.

#### 6.6 Testing

**Return Values**

- [x] **EA6.0** Return values from all functions are tested

**Graphical Output**

- [x] **EA6.1** The properties of graphical output are explicitly
tested