Select and Rename Columns Based on Criteria — select_and_rename

Selects columns from a base set that match specified baseline variables and renames an outcome variable by changing its prefix. Useful for longitudinal data where time-point prefixes need to be standardised or adjusted.

Usage

select_and_rename_cols(
  names_base,
  baseline_vars,
  outcome,
  from_prefix = "t2",
  to_prefix = "t0"
)

Arguments

names_base: a character vector of column names from which to select.
baseline_vars: a character vector of baseline variables to match in `names_base`.
outcome: the name of the outcome variable whose prefix should be replaced.
from_prefix: the original prefix of the outcome variable to be replaced, defaulting to "t2". the prefix should include any character immediately preceding the numeric value and underscore, e.g., "t2_".
to_prefix: the new prefix to replace the original prefix in the outcome variable, defaulting to "t0". the prefix should be in the same format as `from_prefix`, including the character immediately preceding the numeric value and underscore, e.g., "t0_".

Value

a character vector of selected column names with the outcome variable name modified to reflect the new prefix.

Examples

names_base <- c("t0_age", "t0_weight", "t0_height", "t0_outcome")
baseline_vars <- c("age", "weight")
outcome_var <- "t2_outcome"

final_columns <- select_and_rename_cols(names_base, baseline_vars, outcome_var, "t2", "t0")
print(final_columns)
#> [1] "t0_age"     "t0_weight"  "t0_outcome"