Prevent inconsistent order of XX and ZZ columns

v0.2.12 introduced an issue in which the columns of XX and ZZ could be ordered inconsistently, leading to an error when shape() validated these objects. The issue could be reproduced by passing at least two variable names to the group_names argument to shape(), in an order other than alphabetic.

Author: jamesdunham

DESCRIPTION

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: dgo
 Title: Dynamic Estimation of Group-Level Opinion
-Version: 0.2.12
-Date: 2017-11-13
+Version: 0.2.13
+Date: 2017-12-01
 Description: Fit dynamic group-level IRT and MRP models from individual or
     aggregated item response data. This package handles common preprocessing
     tasks and extends functions for inspecting results, poststratification, and

NEWS.md

@@ -1,12 +1,18 @@
+## dgo 0.2.13
+
+* Fix an issue introduced in v0.2.12 that led to an unexpected error in
+  `shape()` when 1) at least two `group_names` are specified in an order other
+  than alphabetic and 2) geographic `modifier_data` is used.
+
 ## dgo 0.2.12
 
 * Allow modeling of unobserved groups using aggregated data. The previous
   behavior was to drop rows in `aggregate_data` indicating zero trials. (They
   don't represent item responses.) Preserving them has the effect that
   unobserved groups, defined partially or entirely by the values of the grouping
   variables in zero-trial rows in `aggregate_data`, can be included in a model.
-* Fix an unexpected error when 1) `aggregate_data` is used without `item_data`,
-  2) no demographic groups are specified via `group_names`, and 3) geographic
+* Fix an unexpected error when 1) `aggregate_data` is used without `item_data`, 2) 
+  no demographic groups are specified via `group_names`, and 3) geographic
   `modifier_data` is used.
 * Fix the check for missing `modifier_data`. Geographic `modifier_data` must
   cover all combinations of the geo and time variables in the item response data

R/shape_hierarchical.r

@@ -42,8 +42,7 @@ zero_unmodeled <- function(hierarchical, modifier_names, group_grid_t, ctrl) {
       paste0(x, unique(group_grid_t[[x]]))[-1]
     }))
   unmodeled_frame <- expand.grid(c(list(unmodeled_param_levels,
-        ctrl@time_filter), rep(list(0L), length(modifier_names))),
-    stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
+        ctrl@time_filter), rep(list(0L), length(modifier_names))))
   unmodeled_frame <- setNames(unmodeled_frame, c(ctrl@geo_name, ctrl@time_name,
       modifier_names))
   data.table::setDT(unmodeled_frame, key = c(ctrl@geo_name, ctrl@time_name))

cran-comments.md

@@ -7,5 +7,7 @@
 
 ## R CMD check results
 
-There were no ERRORs, WARNINGs, or NOTEs. 
+There were no ERRORs or WARNINGs. There was one NOTE. (Days since last update:
+1). This update fixes a bug introduced in the most recent version and undetected
+until today.
 

data/toy_dgirt_in.rda

@@ -103,3 +103,15 @@ test_that('ZZ_prior defaults to ZZ', {
   expect_identical(hier_names, dimnames(d_tprime_only$ZZ_prior)[[2]])
 })
 
+test_that("order of ZZ and XX columns is consistent when vector of group_names is unsorted and geographic data is used", {
+  expect_silent(suppressMessages(shape(item_data = opinion, 
+    item_names = "affirmative_action", 
+    weight_name = "weight",
+    time_name = "year",
+    geo_name = "state", 
+    group_names = c("female", "education"),
+    modifier_data = states,
+    modifier_names = 'prop_hispanic',
+    id_vars = "source")))
+})
+