initializeFlagScheme,oce-method: Establish a data-quality scheme for a oce object

Description

This function stores add an item named flagScheme to the metadata slot of an object inheriting from oce. This is a list containing two items: name and mapping, as provided in the function arguments. The purpose is both to document a flag scheme and to make it so that initializeFlags(), setFlags() and handleFlags() can specify flags by name, as opposed to number. This is a generic function, that may be specialized to the class of object (see “Details”).

Usage

# S4 method for oce
initializeFlagScheme(
  object,
  name = NULL,
  mapping = NULL,
  default = NULL,
  update = NULL,
  debug = 0
)

Value

An object with the metadata slot containing flagScheme.

Arguments

object: An oce object.
name: a character value naming the scheme. If this refers to a pre-defined scheme, then mapping must not be provided, because doing so would contradict the pre-defined scheme, defeating its purpose of providing concreteness and clarity.
mapping: a list of named items describing the mapping from flag meaning to flag numerical value, e.g list(good=1, bad=2) might be used for a hypothetical class.
default: an integer vector of flag values that are not considered to be good. If this is not provided, but if name is "argo", "BODC", "DFO", "WHP bottle", or "WHP CTD", then a conservative value will be set automatically, equal to the list of flag values that designate bad or questionable data. For example, for name="WHP CTD", the setting will be c(1,3,4,5,6,7,9), leaving only value 2, which corresponds with "acceptable" in the notation used for that flag scheme.
update: a logical value indicating whether the scheme provided is to update an existing scheme. The default value, FALSE, prevents such an attempt to alter an existing flag scheme, if one is already embedded in object.
debug: an integer set to 0 for quiet action or to 1 for some debugging.

Details

The following pre-defined schemes are available (note that the names are simplified from the phrases used in defining documentation):

name="argo" defaults mapping to OLD (prior to June 10, 2020)

list(not_assessed=0, passed_all_tests=1, probably_good=2,
     probably_bad=3, bad=4, averaged=7,
     interpolated=8, missing=9)

NEW (after June 10, 2020)

list(not_assessed=0, passed_all_tests=1, probably_good=2,
     probably_bad=3, bad=4, changed=5, not_used_6=6, not_used_7=7,
     estimated=8, missing=9)

See reference 1 for a deeper explanation of the meanings of these codes.

name="BODC" defaults mapping to

list(no_quality_control=0, good=1, probably_good=2,
     probably_bad=3, bad=4, changed=5,
     below_detection=6, in_excess=7, interpolated=8,
     missing=9)

See reference 2 for a deeper explanation of the meanings of these codes, and note that codes A and Q are not provided in oce.

name="DFO" defaults mapping to

list(no_quality_control=0, appears_correct=1, appears_inconsistent=2,
     doubtful=3, erroneous=4, changed=5,
     qc_by_originator=8, missing=9)

See reference 3 for a deeper explanation of the meanings of these codes.

name="WHP bottle" defaults mapping to

list(no_information=1, no_problems_noted=2, leaking=3,
     did_not_trip=4, not_reported=5, discrepency=6,
     unknown_problem=7, did_not_trip=8, no_sample=9)

See reference 4 for a deeper explanation of the meanings of these codes.

name="WHP CTD" defaults mapping to

list(not_calibrated=1, acceptable=2, questionable=3,
    bad=4, not_reported=5, interpolated=6,
    despiked=7, missing=9)