When converting haven_labelled variables to factor variables I (seem to) lose the underlying "labels" (using tidyverse terminology I think...).
# this sets up a factor var x with non-continuous numeric values
library(tidyverse)
library(labelled)
x <- sample( c(1, 5, 10, 20), 1000000, replace=TRUE, prob=c(0.1, 0.2, 0.65, 0.05) )
x_tib <- as_tibble(x) %>%
set_value_labels(value = c("Letter A" = 1,
"Letter B" = 5,
"Letter C" = 10,
"Letter D" = 20))
The attributes of x_tib$value are as I would expect
attributes(x_tib$value)
glimpse(x_tib$value)
> attributes(x_tib$value)
$labels
Letter A Letter B Letter C Letter D
1 5 10 20
$class
[1] "haven_labelled"
> glimpse(x_tib$value)
'haven_labelled' num [1:1000000] 10 10 10 5 10 5 10 10 10 10 ...
- attr(*, "labels")= Named num [1:4] 1 5 10 20
..- attr(*, "names")= chr [1:4] "Letter A" "Letter B" "Letter C" "Letter D"
However, after I convert this to a factor variable (as recommended in the haven documents) I appear to lose the original "labels" (1, 5, 10, 20 becomes 1, 2, 3, 4).
attributes(as_factor(x_tib$value))
glimpse(as_factor(x_tib$value))
> attributes(as_factor(x_tib$value))
$levels
[1] "Letter A" "Letter B" "Letter C" "Letter D"
$class
[1] "factor"
> glimpse(as_factor(x_tib$value))
Factor w/ 4 levels "Letter A","Letter B",..: 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 ...
Can I keep the underlying "labels"?
Note - I recognise that I can encode them in the "levels" option of as_factor (e.g. as_factor(x_tib$value, "value") or as_factor(x_tib$value, "both")).
