Get expected target data column names from config

Extracts the expected column names for target data from a hub's configuration files in the correct order. This is useful for validation and schema generation without needing to inspect the actual dataset.

Usage

get_target_data_colnames(
  config_target_data,
  target_type = c("time-series", "oracle-output")
)

Arguments

config_target_data

A config_target_data object (from hubUtils::read_config(hub_path, "target-data"))

target_type

Character string specifying the target data type. Must be either "time-series" or "oracle-output".

Value

A character vector of expected column names in the correct order:

• Date column

• Task ID columns (from observable_unit)

• Non-task ID columns (time-series only, if specified in config)

• Output type columns (output_type and output_type_id, oracle-output only if specified in config)

• Target value column (observation for time-series, oracle_value for oracle-output)

• as_of column (if data is versioned)

Details

The function builds the column name vector directly from the configuration objects without requiring dataset inspection. This makes it lightweight, efficient, and suitable for validation purposes.

For time-series data, columns are ordered as:

1. Task ID columns from observable_unit

2. Date column (if not in observable_unit)

3. Non-task ID columns from target-data.json (if present)

4. observation column (target value)

5. as_of column (if versioned = TRUE)

For oracle-output data, columns are ordered as:

1. Task ID columns from observable_unit

2. Date column (if not in observable_unit)

3. output_type and output_type_id columns (if has_output_type_ids = TRUE)

4. oracle_value column (target value)

5. as_of column (if versioned = TRUE)

Examples

# Note: These examples require test data
hub_path <- system.file("testhubs/v6/target_file", package = "hubUtils")
config_target_data <- hubUtils::read_config(hub_path, "target-data")

# Get time-series column names
get_target_data_colnames(
  config_target_data,
  target_type = "time-series"
)
#> [1] "target_end_date" "target"          "location"        "observation"    

# Get oracle-output column names
get_target_data_colnames(
  config_target_data,
  target_type = "oracle-output"
)
#> [1] "target_end_date" "target"          "location"        "output_type"    
#> [5] "output_type_id"  "oracle_value"