Explode Multi-Select Variables into Dummy Codes

Converts multi-select variables (where each observation can contain multiple values separated by commas or pipes) into dummy-coded variables. Each unique value becomes a binary column indicating presence (TRUE) or absence (FALSE) of that value.

Usage

explode_multi_select(x, answer_separators = "|")

Arguments

x

Character vector containing multi-select data. Each element may contain multiple answers separated by either commas (`,`) or pipes (`|`).

answer_separators

Character vector specifying separators to split answers. Default is "|" since "," are used within the answers.

Value

A data.table with - Wide format: one row per input element, one column per unique value (binary)

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Basic usage
x <- c("A,B", "B,C", "A,C", "A|B|C")
result <- explode_multi_select(x)

# With long format
result_long <- explode_multi_select(x, long_format = TRUE)

# With custom separators
x2 <- c("A;B", "B;C")
result2 <- explode_multi_select(x2, answer_separators = ";")
} # }