RDelta

Parse and Query DELTA-Format Taxonomic Descriptions

Provides an R interface to the 'tDelta' C++ library for parsing 'DELTA' (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) format files (https://freedelta.sourceforge.net). Supports loading character lists, item descriptions, and specifications, with efficient searching and matching of items based on character values. It also supports the generation of identification keys, diagnoses, natural-language descriptions, and clustering and ordination analyses by means of the DELTA programs 'CONFOR', 'KEY', and 'DIST'.

Installation

Installing from CRAN:

install.packages("RDelta")`

Installing from GitHub:

install.packages("devtools")
library(devtools)
# devtools::install_github("maurobio/rdelta")
install.packages("RDelta", repos = c('https://maurobio.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Some of the package functions assumes that the DELTA system CONFOR, KEY, or DIST program executables are available in the system PATH or in the current working directory. Get these programs from here: https://github.com/maurobio/freedelta/tree/main/classic_delta

Examples

Load a DELTA dataset:

library(RDelta)
delta <- load_delta("chars", "items", "specs")

List characters:

cat("\nCHARACTERS LIST:\n")
for (i in 1:Example$get_chars_nb()) {
	cat(i, " : ", Example$get_char_feature(i), "\n")
}
cat("* ", Example$get_chars_nb(), " characters *\n")

List items:

cat("\nITEMS LIST:\n")
for (i in 1:Example$get_items_nb()) {
	cat(i, " : ", Example$get_item_name(i), "\n")
}
cat("* ", Example$get_items_nb(), " items *\n")

Create a dichotomous key (with default parameters):

key(delta)

Create a natural-language description:

natlan(delta)