Error message when using between() function with variable names

Question

When I run the following code section, I am getting the error message copied below.

all_data_db2 <- all_data_db2 %>%
  filter (!is.na(result)) %>%
  mutate(OOS= 
    ifelse(!is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & between(result,lsl,usl), "In Spec",
    ifelse (is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result <usl, "In Spec",
    ifelse (!is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl) & result > lsl, "In Spec", 
    ifelse(is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl), "No Spec Limits",
    "OOS")))))

produces error message: Show in New WindowClear OutputExpand/Collapse Output Error in UseMethod("rename") : no applicable method for 'rename' applied to an object of class "character" Show in New WindowClear OutputExpand/Collapse Output Error: Problem with mutate() column OOS. i OOS = ifelse(...). x left must be length 1 i The error occurred in group 1: code_date = "2021-12-29". Run rlang::last_error() to see where the error occurred.

However, when I enter values for lsl and usl in the between function only as shown below, the code runs just fine:

all_data_db2 <- all_data_db2 %>%
  filter (!is.na(result)) %>%
  mutate(OOS= 
    ifelse(!is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & between(result,200,2000), "In Spec",
    ifelse (is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result <usl, "In Spec",
    ifelse (!is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl) & result > lsl, "In Spec", 
    ifelse(is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl), "No Spec Limits",
    "OOS")))))

As shown above, I am using lsl and usl variable names in other parts of this code section without an issue, so very confused why they aren't working with the between() function. I also tried "as.numeric" in the between function (such as: between (result, as.numeric(lsl), as.numeric(usl)) and still got the same error message as above.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Answer 1

The reason is that according to ?between, the boundary values (left, right) are not vectorized

left, right - Boundary values (must be scalars).

The second piece of code works only because it is a single value - scalar and not the whole column. An option is to change the between to comparison operators (>, <)

library(dplyr)
all_data_db2 <- all_data_db2 %>%
  filter (!is.na(result)) %>%
  mutate(OOS= 
    ifelse(!is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result > lsl & result <usl, "In Spec",
    ifelse (is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result <usl, "In Spec",
    ifelse (!is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl) & result > lsl, "In Spec", 
    ifelse(is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl), "No Spec Limits",
    "OOS")))))

Instead of a nested ifelse, may use case_when

all_data_db2 <- all_data_db2 %>%
  filter (!is.na(result)) %>%
  mutate(OOS= 
    case_when(!is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result > lsl &
         result < usl ~  "In Spec",
    is.na(lsl) & !is.na(usl) & result <usl ~  "In Spec",
    !is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl) & result > lsl ~  "In Spec", 
    is.na(lsl) & is.na(usl) ~  "No Spec Limits",
    TRUE ~ "OOS"))