Make ae available: pharmaversesdtm::ae vs library(pharmaversesdtm) - a dead horse?

[jimrothstein]

Know there has been much discussion on this. But still not clear to me why admiral uses BOTH:

library(pharmaversesdtm) and pharmversesdtm::ae

library seems enough to me:

(I can clean this up, but here is my scratch work:)
GOAL: make dataset ae available for use
COMPARE: library(pharmaversesdtm) vs pharmaversesdtm::ae

if pkg installed, this will find ae even if package is not loaded

reset()  #  explained below
data(package = lib_sdtm)    # locates `ae`, but you can use it yet!

METHOD 1 to make ae available.

Call library on pkg pharmaversesdtm
I can not spell pharmaversesdtm; so trick to evaluate the string

lib_sdtm = "pharmaversesdtm"
library(lib_sdtm, character.only=T)
ae    # **now found, our goal**

Tool to clean out packages, NS and so ae is not found

reset= function() {
  unloadNamespace("pharmaversesdtm")
}


reset()

check

isNamespaceLoaded(lib_sdtm)   # all negative
search()  # no
ae  # not found
getAnywhere(ae)   # not found

Method 2 to make ae available, use pharmaversesdtm::ae EACH time

###(but does not attach the package)

pharmaversesdtm::ae   # loads NS and ae is available

### check - `ae` not otherwise present,  `must` use `::` each time
isNamespaceLoaded(lib_sdtm)   # loaded not attached
search()                      # not attached
ae                            # not found
getAnywhere(ae)

So both methods make ae available, but do we need both.

[bms63]

I guess we are just trying to be explicit on where the data is coming from as we are assuming folks are not super familiar with R yet if they are using our template programs.

Yes we could drop the library() call, but the comment on the datasets origin is important to also point out to new users.

[jimrothstein]

Yes, you did say purpose of pharamaversesdtm::ae is to be explicit.

• I will add this to the FAQ I am (slowly) keeping.
• IMHO, new programmer would benefit from enhancing the comments. But if that is not your view/consensus, I drop it since there are other things to do. Just asking.
• In particular, as an example

# Package pharmaversesdtm provides necessary datasets (ae, dm ...) for this vignette, template, ...
library(pharmaversesdtm)