DataAppendixOutput

The guidelines for your Data Appendix script indicated that every time a command generates a figure, table, or some other computational output that you will use in the Data Appendix, a new file that preserves the output should be created. These files are referred to as Data Appendix Output Files.

When you adopt a copy-and-paste workflow, you will copy output from these files and paste it into the appropriate places in your Data Appendix.

Contents of the DataAppendixOutput/ Folder

Documents

All your Data Appendix Output Files should be stored in the DataAppendixOutput/ folder.

• Read more

  There should be a one-to-one correspondence between the output you present in the Data Appendix and your Data Appendix Output Files:

  • Every piece of output used in your Data Appendix should be preserved in one of the Data Appendix Output Files stored in the DataAppendixOutput/ folder.
  • Every Data Appendix Output File stored in the DataAppendixOutput/ folder should contain something that appears in your Data Appendix.

  ---

Formats of Data Appendix Output Files

Data Appendix Output Files can be stored in a wide variety of formats, depending partly on the nature of the output that is saved in the file. For example:

• If the output is a table, it could be exported to a file saved as plain text (.txt), comma separated values (.csv) , or an Excel workbook (.xlsx).
• If the output is a figure, it could be saved as .png, .jpg, or any of a large number of alternative formats for graphics files.
• Many types of output can also be saved as .pdf, .html, and .docx.
• In some cases, it may be convenient to preserve output in log files.

Naming Data Appendix Output Files

Choose informative names for your Data Appendix Output Files.

One good strategy is to give them names that correspond to the the variables they represent and the kind of information they contain.

• For example...

  For a quantitative variable gdp_pc, give the files names like:

  • MissingObsgdp_pc.txt (assuming output showing the number of missing values was saved in a .txt file)
  • DescriptiveStatsgdp_pc.csv (assuming the descriptive statistics were saved in a .csv file)
  • Histogramgdp_pc.jpg (assuming the histogram was saved in a .jpg file)

  And for a categorical variable region, give the files names like:

  • MissingObsregion.txt (assuming output showing the number of missing values was saved in a .txt file)
  • FrequencyTableregion.xlsx (assuming the frequency table was exported to an Excel workbook)
  • BarGraphregion.jpg (assuming the bar graph was saved in a .jpg file)

  Remember: the filename extensions for your Data Appendix output files will be determined by the formats in which the files were saved.

  ---