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Creating Copy-Paste Friendly Table Summaries in R

Raymond Balise

2026-01-15

The Problem

To get the most helpful answers to analysis questions from AI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini), the tools need to know about your data but uploading datasets is often problematic or even illegal. Other summaries like the skim() function in the skimr package or str() from base R will print potentially sensitive data like character strings or dates. To learn more about de-identification and protected health information (PHI) in the United States, visit the Health and Human Services webpage on De-Identification of PHI at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/de-identification/index.html#rationale.

The Solution

It would be useful to have a function that prints a description of datasets that excludes details that are known to be, or are likely to be, sensitive. For example, dates are protected health information; free-form text is also problematic. While the output from the function needs to be checked to make sure there is no sensitive data, it is useful to have a function that prints variable names, variable types and the values for categorical data.

To have R print a description of your dataset — for example, for a dataset named test_data — you can first tell R to load the Open.Visualization.Academy package into its thinking memory and then use the show_structure() function like this:

library(Open.Visualization.Academy)
show_structure(test_data)

or you can tell R to use the function with only one line, like this:

Open.Visualization.Academy::show_structure(test_data)

The result will look like this:

Table: `test_data` looks like this

|variable         |type               |levels                           |
|:----------------|:------------------|:--------------------------------|
|char_col         |character          |                                 |
|numeric_col      |numeric            |range: [1.5-5.9]                 |
|numeric_col_miss |numeric            |range: [1.5-5.9], NA             |
|integer_col      |integer            |range: [1-5]                     |
|integer_col_miss |integer            |range: [1-5], NA                 |
|logical_col      |logical            |TRUE, FALSE                      |
|logical_col_miss |logical            |TRUE, FALSE, NA                  |
|factor_col       |factor             |high, low, medium                |
|factor_col_miss  |factor             |high, low, medium, NA            |
|ordered_col      |ordered factor     |small, medium, large             |
|ordered_col_miss |ordered factor     |small, medium, large, NA         |
|date_col         |Date               |                                 |
|datetime_col     |datetime           |                                 |
|time_col         |time (hrs:min:sec) |range: [08:15:22 - 23:59:59]     |
|time_col_miss    |time (hrs:min:sec) |range: [09:30:00 - 23:59:59], NA |
✔ Copied to the clipboard!
Remove any sensitive data before pasting and sharing.
Look for: names, dates, locations, phone numbers, IDs, emails, etc.

! Review factor levels for sensitive information:
factor_col, factor_col_miss, ordered_col, ordered_col_miss

If your operating system allows you to copy and paste, the report will be copied automatically onto your clipboard.

The report is designed to not print sensitive data like names (which are likely character variables) and dates. It will print the names of categorical factor variables along with their levels. The bottom of the report lists categorical factor variables which contain text other than: "yes", "no", "checked", "unchecked", "TRUE", "FALSE", "male", "female". Carefully check these variables for potentially sensitive information before pasting the output into any AI tools or sharing with the public.

Extra option: display_redacted

By default, show_structure() hides/suppresses/redacts character variables, dates, and datetime variables from the levels column. We prefer this format because it makes it quicker to review the output. However, if you don’t like to see blank lines for the redacted data, use the display_redacted = TRUE argument within the show_structure() function. Setting the value to TRUE prints < redacted strings > for variables of type “character”, < redacted dates > for date variables, and < redacted date-times > for datetime variables.

For example:

Table: `example_data` looks like this

|variable       |type      |levels                                    |
|:--------------|:---------|:-----------------------------------------|
|mrn            |numeric   |range: [123456790-123456796]              |
|sex            |factor    |Female, Male                              |
|first_name     |character |< redacted strings >                      |
|last_name      |factor    |Balise, Feaster, Grealis, Luo, Maya, Odom |
|city           |factor    |Coral Gables, Dallas, Miami, New York     |
|package_author |factor    |none, other, this                         |
|visit_date     |Date      |< redacted dates >                        |
✔ Copied to the clipboard!
Remove any sensitive data before pasting and sharing.
Look for: names, dates, locations, phone numbers, IDs, emails, etc.

! Review factor levels for sensitive information:
last_name, city, package_author
Table: `example_data` looks like this

|variable       |type      |levels                                    |
|:--------------|:---------|:-----------------------------------------|
|mrn            |numeric   |range: [123456790-123456796]              |
|sex            |factor    |Female, Male                              |
|first_name     |character |                                          |
|last_name      |factor    |Balise, Feaster, Grealis, Luo, Maya, Odom |
|city           |factor    |Coral Gables, Dallas, Miami, New York     |
|package_author |factor    |none, other, this                         |
|visit_date     |Date      |                                          |
✔ Copied to the clipboard!
Remove any sensitive data before pasting and sharing.
Look for: names, dates, locations, phone numbers, IDs, emails, etc.

! Review factor levels for sensitive information:
last_name, city, package_author

Note that show_structure() is not smart enough to notice that some numeric values, like the medical record number variable named mrn, and factor levels for last_name and city may be sensitive. Carefully check the report and remove all sensitive data before pasting and sharing.

mrn sex first_name last_name city package_author visit_date
123456790 Male Kyle Grealis Dallas this 2034-01-15
123456791 Male Raymond Balise Miami this 2034-02-20
123456792 Female Lori Balise Miami none 2034-02-20
123456793 Male Danny Maya Coral Gables none 2034-03-10
123456794 Male Dan Feaster Dallas none 2034-04-05
123456795 Male Sean Luo New York none 2034-05-12
123456796 Male Gabriel Odom Miami other 2034-06-18

So, before sharing the report you would want to edit it to show this:

Table: `example_data` looks like this

|variable       |type      |levels                                    |
|:--------------|:---------|:-----------------------------------------|
|mrn            |numeric   |                                          |
|sex            |factor    |Female, Male                              |
|first_name     |character |                                          |
|last_name      |factor    |                                          |
|city           |factor    |                                          |
|package_author |factor    |none, other, this                         |
|visit_date     |Date      |                                          |

What is the example data?

If you are curious, the test_data used for the first report above contains all the types of data you are likely to see. Notice there are columns that were designed to have no missing data (like numeric_col) and columns that contain missing values (like numeric_col_miss).

char_col numeric_col numeric_col_miss integer_col integer_col_miss logical_col logical_col_miss factor_col factor_col_miss ordered_col ordered_col_miss date_col datetime_col time_col time_col_miss
apple 1.5 1.5 1 1 TRUE TRUE low low small small 2034-01-01 2034-01-01 09:30:00 09:30:00 09:30:00
banana 2.7 2.7 2 2 FALSE FALSE medium medium medium medium 2034-06-15 2034-06-15 14:45:30 14:45:30 14:45:30
cherry 3.14 3.14 3 3 TRUE TRUE high high large large 2034-12-31 2034-12-31 23:59:59 23:59:59 23:59:59
damson 4 NA 4 NA FALSE NA medium NA medium NA 2033-03-20 2033-03-20 08:15:22 08:15:22 NA
elderberry 5.9 5.9 5 5 TRUE TRUE low low small small 2035-08-10 2035-08-10 16:20:45 16:20:45 16:20:45

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