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You can immediately install {soils}, create a new template project, and render example reports, as demonstrated in the last two tutorials. However, you will need to customize and edit the content to fit your project, shown in the next three tutorials: Customize & write, Render reports, and Troubleshoot.

Access the example datasets

An example dataset and data dictionary are included in every {soils} project. Access the .csv files in the data folder, or load the package and call the dataframes by name as shown below.

Load {soils} and see first five rows of each dataframe
library(soils)
head(washi_data, 5) |> knitr::kable()
year sample_id farm_name producer_id field_name field_id county crop longitude latitude texture bd_g_cm3 pmn_lb_ac nh4_n_mg_kg no3_n_mg_kg poxc_mg_kg ph ec_mmhos_cm k_mg_kg ca_mg_kg mg_mg_kg na_mg_kg cec_meq_100g b_mg_kg cu_mg_kg fe_mg_kg mn_mg_kg s_mg_kg zn_mg_kg total_c_percent total_n_percent ace_g_protein_kg_soil sand_percent silt_percent clay_percent min_c_96hr_mg_c_kg_day p_olsen_mg_kg wsa_percent om_percent toc_percent whc_in_ft inorganic_c_percent
2023 23-WUY05-01 Farm 150 WUY05 Field 01 1 County 9 Hay/Silage -119 49 Clay Loam 1.30 67.13 1.6 9.2 496 6.7 0.42 498 1380 145.2 16.1 7.8 0.22 0.6 26 1.5 4.29 1.7 1.85 0.16 6.74 44 23 33 35.6 15 88.5 4.5 1.85 1.01 NA
2022 22-RHM05-02 Farm 085 RHM05 Field 02 2 County 18 Green Manure -123 47 Sandy Loam 0.88 129.97 21.6 6.1 571 5.9 0.05 198 780 96.8 20.7 10.5 0.09 0.4 28 2.7 9.41 0.8 2.88 0.18 21.50 69 21 10 30.0 37 92.6 5.8 2.88 1.08 NA
2022 22-ENR07-02 Farm 058 ENR07 Field 02 2 County 11 Vegetable -122 47 Silt Loam 1.21 122.17 8.1 25.3 419 6.3 0.60 294 1760 266.2 20.7 13.0 0.41 4.2 141 4.1 26.73 4.2 1.68 0.14 10.90 11 79 10 15.0 73 91.3 2.4 1.68 2.77 NA
2022 22-ZTD04-03 Farm 061 ZTD04 Field 03 3 County 13 Herb -120 46 Silt Loam 1.37 95.24 13.8 16.9 424 6.8 2.18 229 3380 738.1 80.5 14.4 0.72 1.1 37 11.5 51.70 2.4 1.40 0.12 5.53 36 51 13 67.5 30 94.3 2.9 1.40 1.93 NA
2023 23-WUY05-03 Farm 150 WUY05 Field 03 3 County 9 Pasture, Seeded -119 49 Sandy Loam 1.22 111.35 3.9 6.7 547 7.6 0.60 273 2820 193.6 13.8 10.1 0.25 0.7 15 1.7 3.29 0.8 1.65 0.16 4.20 64 33 3 50.6 8 84.6 6.7 1.53 1.28 0.12
head(data_dictionary, 5) |> knitr::kable()
measurement_group column_name abbr unit
Physical texture Texture
Physical sand_percent Sand %
Physical silt_percent Silt %
Physical clay_percent Clay %
Physical bd_g_cm3 Bulk Density g/cm³

Use washi_data and data_dictionary as templates when formatting your own data to use in {soils} functions and reports.

Data template

Your data must contain the below required columns and each soil measurement must be in its own column, as shown in washi_data.

Glimpse at the example data
dplyr::glimpse(washi_data)
#> Rows: 100
#> Columns: 42
#> $ year                   <int> 2023, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2023, 2022, 2023, 2022,…
#> $ sample_id              <chr> "23-WUY05-01", "22-RHM05-02", "22-ENR07-02", "2…
#> $ farm_name              <chr> "Farm 150", "Farm 085", "Farm 058", "Farm 061",…
#> $ producer_id            <chr> "WUY05", "RHM05", "ENR07", "ZTD04", "WUY05", "B…
#> $ field_name             <chr> "Field 01", "Field 02", "Field 02", "Field 03",…
#> $ field_id               <int> 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 8, 2, 1,…
#> $ county                 <chr> "County 9", "County 18", "County 11", "County 1…
#> $ crop                   <chr> "Hay/Silage", "Green Manure", "Vegetable", "Her…
#> $ longitude              <int> -119, -123, -122, -120, -119, -117, -118, -117,…
#> $ latitude               <int> 49, 47, 47, 46, 49, 47, 49, 47, 48, 48, 46, 47,…
#> $ texture                <chr> "Clay Loam", "Sandy Loam", "Silt Loam", "Silt L…
#> $ bd_g_cm3               <dbl> 1.30, 0.88, 1.21, 1.37, 1.22, 1.14, 1.44, 1.24,…
#> $ pmn_lb_ac              <dbl> 67.13, 129.97, 122.17, 95.24, 111.35, 61.92, -7…
#> $ nh4_n_mg_kg            <dbl> 1.6, 21.6, 8.1, 13.8, 3.9, 12.4, 2.4, 12.4, 2.3…
#> $ no3_n_mg_kg            <dbl> 9.2, 6.1, 25.3, 16.9, 6.7, 4.3, 21.5, 7.4, 2.3,…
#> $ poxc_mg_kg             <int> 496, 571, 419, 424, 547, 235, 501, 480, 965, 10…
#> $ ph                     <dbl> 6.7, 5.9, 6.3, 6.8, 7.6, 5.5, 5.5, 5.9, 6.3, 6.…
#> $ ec_mmhos_cm            <dbl> 0.42, 0.05, 0.60, 2.18, 0.60, 0.81, 0.55, 0.34,…
#> $ k_mg_kg                <int> 498, 198, 294, 229, 273, 372, 289, 355, 253, 73…
#> $ ca_mg_kg               <int> 1380, 780, 1760, 3380, 2820, 1480, 1140, 2080, …
#> $ mg_mg_kg               <dbl> 145.2, 96.8, 266.2, 738.1, 193.6, 229.9, 133.1,…
#> $ na_mg_kg               <dbl> 16.1, 20.7, 20.7, 80.5, 13.8, 16.1, 23.0, 16.1,…
#> $ cec_meq_100g           <dbl> 7.8, 10.5, 13.0, 14.4, 10.1, 12.4, 12.9, 14.8, …
#> $ b_mg_kg                <dbl> 0.22, 0.09, 0.41, 0.72, 0.25, 0.18, 0.12, 0.21,…
#> $ cu_mg_kg               <dbl> 0.6, 0.4, 4.2, 1.1, 0.7, 1.0, 0.5, 1.4, 1.1, 0.…
#> $ fe_mg_kg               <int> 26, 28, 141, 37, 15, 64, 44, 85, 129, 31, 86, 3…
#> $ mn_mg_kg               <dbl> 1.5, 2.7, 4.1, 11.5, 1.7, 9.0, 4.4, 17.1, 9.9, …
#> $ s_mg_kg                <dbl> 4.29, 9.41, 26.73, 51.70, 3.29, 4.51, 9.13, 8.2…
#> $ zn_mg_kg               <dbl> 1.7, 0.8, 4.2, 2.4, 0.8, 0.5, 34.0, 0.9, 7.8, 0…
#> $ total_c_percent        <dbl> 1.85, 2.88, 1.68, 1.40, 1.65, 1.55, 2.25, 2.37,…
#> $ total_n_percent        <dbl> 0.16, 0.18, 0.14, 0.12, 0.16, 0.13, 0.15, 0.17,…
#> $ ace_g_protein_kg_soil  <dbl> 6.74, 21.50, 10.90, 5.53, 4.20, 10.30, 7.73, 6.…
#> $ sand_percent           <int> 44, 69, 11, 36, 64, 24, 80, 22, 62, 48, 80, 69,…
#> $ silt_percent           <int> 23, 21, 79, 51, 33, 62, 16, 57, 26, 45, 14, 27,…
#> $ clay_percent           <int> 33, 10, 10, 13, 3, 14, 4, 21, 12, 7, 6, 4, 10, …
#> $ min_c_96hr_mg_c_kg_day <dbl> 35.60, 30.00, 15.00, 67.50, 50.60, 25.50, 30.60…
#> $ p_olsen_mg_kg          <int> 15, 37, 73, 30, 8, 33, 27, 29, 40, 16, 19, 11, …
#> $ wsa_percent            <dbl> 88.5, 92.6, 91.3, 94.3, 84.6, 86.6, 86.9, 82.5,…
#> $ om_percent             <dbl> 4.5, 5.8, 2.4, 2.9, 6.7, 3.2, 27.0, 4.2, 7.9, 5…
#> $ toc_percent            <dbl> 1.85, 2.88, 1.68, 1.40, 1.53, 1.55, 2.25, 2.37,…
#> $ whc_in_ft              <dbl> 1.01, 1.08, 2.77, 1.93, 1.28, 2.25, 0.84, 2.14,…
#> $ inorganic_c_percent    <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, 0.12, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, N…

Your data must have the below required columns. However, only the columns in bold are required to have values. Put another way, your data must have these column names, even if every row is blank. Otherwise, the data-validation chunk in 01_producer-report.qmd or {soils} functions will error. For more details, see Data/dictionary mismatches.

  • year <int> is used to select samples to be included in the report.

  • sample_id <chr> must be unique throughout the dataset.

  • farm_name <chr> is included at the top of the report. If blank, it is replaced with “Farm: producer_id”.

  • producer_id <chr> is used to select samples to be included in the report.

  • field_name <chr> must be unique across all fields for each producer and is displayed in tables and tool tips for maps. If blank, it is replaced with “Field field_id”.

  • field_id <chr> must be unique across all fields for each producer.

  • county <chr> is used to group and summarize samples from the same county as the producer. Can be blank.

  • crop <chr> is used to group and summarize samples from the same crop as the producer. Can be blank.

  • longitude <int> and latitude <int> are used to map each sample point using the {leaflet} package. Coordinates must be in decimal degrees using WGS 84 (aka EPSG:4326). If blank, the map will not be included.

  • texture <chr> is used in the “physical” measurement group table. This column is not used in the texture triangle plot, which is instead created from percentage sand, silt, and clay measurement results.

  • Each soil measurement must have its own column in the dataset and a corresponding row in the data dictionary, as shown in Dictionary template.

    • Measurement columns come after the required columns for easy selection in the tidy-long chunk.

Dictionary template

The data dictionary is used to group and order soil measurements, and to nicely format labels in tables and plots. The example data_dictionary contains UTF-8 encoded superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.

To properly encode your data dictionary as UTF-8, save it to the data folder as CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv) in MS Excel.

Glimpse at the example data dictionary
dplyr::glimpse(data_dictionary)
#> Rows: 32
#> Columns: 4
#> $ measurement_group <chr> "Physical", "Physical", "Physical", "Physical", "Phy…
#> $ column_name       <chr> "texture", "sand_percent", "silt_percent", "clay_per…
#> $ abbr              <chr> "Texture", "Sand", "Silt", "Clay", "Bulk Density", "…
#> $ unit              <chr> "", "%", "%", "%", "g/cm³", "%", "in/ft", "%", "mg/k…

Your data dictionary must have the below required columns for every soil measurement included in your data.

  • measurement_group <chr> determines how the soil measurements are grouped. The order in which these groups appear in the report is determined by the order they are listed within the data dictionary.

  • column_name <chr> is used to join the dictionary with your data. Must exactly match the column names of the soil measurements in your dataset. The order in which these measurements appear within their measurement_group is determined by the order they are listed within the data dictionary.

  • abbr <chr> and unit <chr> are how soil measurements are labeled in tables with the abbreviation as the column header and unit as a secondary spanning header.

Data/dictionary mismatches

Getting your data and dictionary in the proper format to render the report without errors will likely be the most difficult part of making {soils} work for your project.

The data-validation chunk and many {soils} functions include testthat::expect_contains() to fail early if required columns are missing from either the data or the dictionary. This early failure saves time by stopping as soon as the missing column or data/dictionary mismatch is identified. Additionally, these early failed tests provide the expected versus actual values, making it easier to correct the issue with minimal debugging.

Below are some common issues that arise and possible workarounds. These workarounds may make more sense after reviewing the Your data section that includes example errors and fixes.

Extra columns in data

Soil measurements in your data but not in your dictionary will cause the report to error in the data-validation chunk. For example, rendering the report will fail if your dataset contains both pH and CEC results but your dictionary only contains pH. Either add the CEC measurement to your dictionary or remove this measurement column from your data. If you don’t want to delete the column from your datasheet, you can remove it from only the data object with data <- dplyr::select(data, -cec_meq_100g) perhaps in the load-data chunk.

Additional metadata columns in your data will also cause the report to error in the data-validation chunk. For example, if you have a column phone_number with producer phone numbers that won’t be used in the report, remove it from the data with the data <- dplyr::select(data, -c(cec_meq_100g, phone_number)). If you want to use this column in the report, then add it to the required_cols vector of the data-validation chunk so that the testthat function doesn’t error.

Extra rows in dictionary

Soil measurements in your dictionary but not in your data will not error and will not affect the report. For example, the report will simply show the pH results if your dictionary contains both pH and CEC but your data only contains pH results.

Your data

Once your project data and dictionary files match the structure of the examples and are saved in the data folder, follow along with the changes in the code chunks in 01_producer-report.qmd. Code you will need to change are marked with the text “EDIT:”. Find all edit markers in the RStudio project with Ctrl + Shift + F to open the Find in Files wizard.

Below changes are for demonstration purposes only, the actual changes should be based on your data and dictionary.

load-data chunk

Replace washi-data.csv with the name of your data file (my-data.csv).

Example changed chunk
# EDIT: Add your cleaned lab data to the data folder, using 'washi-data.csv' as
# a template.

# Load lab results
data <- read.csv(
  here::here("data/my-data.csv"),
  check.names = FALSE,
  encoding = "UTF-8",
  strip.white = TRUE
)

load-dictionary chunk

Change data-dictionary.csv to the name of your dictionary file (my-dictionary.csv). If using subscripts, superscripts, or special characters, make sure your csv is saved with UTF-8 encoding (see Dictionary template for how to do this).

Example changed chunk
# EDIT: Add your data dictionary to the data folder, using 'data-dictionary.csv'
# as a template.

# Load data dictionary
dictionary <- read.csv(
  here::here("data/my-dictionary.csv"),
  check.names = FALSE,
  # Set encoding for using subscripts, superscripts, special characters
  encoding = "UTF-8",
  strip.white = TRUE
)

tidy-long chunk

Replace the column range of the soil measurements from the example washi-data.csv (12:42) with the column range of the soil measurements in your data (12:26). This chunk tidies the data from wide to long for summarization and visualization.

Example changed chunk
# EDIT: `washi_data` example has soil measurements in columns 12 - 42. Replace
# this column range with the column indices of the soil measurements in your
# dataset.

# Tidy data into long format and join with data dictionary
results_long <- data |>
  dplyr::mutate(
    dplyr::across(
      # EDIT: replace with the column range of your soil measurements
      12:26,
      as.numeric
    )
  ) |>
  tidyr::pivot_longer(
    # EDIT: replace with the column range of your soil measurements
    cols = 12:26,
    names_to = "measurement"
  )

data-validation chunk

This chunk checks there are no mismatches as described in Data/dictionary mismatches by making sure all column names in your dataset are in either the required_cols vector or the column_name column of my-dictionary.csv.

In this example, add an extra column named tillage in my-data.csv without changing the dictionary.

After clicking the Render button, the report failed.

Quitting from lines 94-115 [data-validation] (01_producer-report.qmd)
Error:
! names(data) (`actual`) isn't fully contained within c(required_cols, dictionary$column_name) (`expected`).
* Missing from `expected`: "tillage"
* Present in `expected`:   "year", "sample_id", "farm_name", "producer_id", "field_name", "field_id", "county", "crop", "longitude", ...

This error message says the error occurred in lines 94-115 in the data-validation chunk because tillage was missing from the expected values, which are elements of required_cols and dictionary$column_name.

Adding "tillage" to required_cols prevents this error.

Example changed chunk
# OPTIONAL EDIT: If you have extra columns in `data`, add them to this vector.
required_cols <- c(
  "year",
  "sample_id",
  "farm_name",
  "producer_id",
  "field_name",
  "field_id",
  "county",
  "crop",
  "longitude",
  "latitude",
  "texture",
  "tillage"
)

# Check all column names in `data` are in the `required_cols` vector or
# `column_name` column of `dictionary`.
testthat::expect_in(names(data), c(required_cols, dictionary$column_name))

To demonstrate another data/dictionary mismatch error, remove cec_meq_100g from the dictionary while keeping it in the dataset.

Quitting from lines 94-115 [data-validation] (01_producer-report.qmd)
Error:
! names(data) (`actual`) isn't fully contained within c(...) (`expected`).
* Missing from `expected`: "cec_meq_100g"
* Present in `expected`:   "year", "sample_id", "farm_name", "producer_id", "field_name", "field_id", "county", "crop", "texture", ...

The error occurred because cec_meq_100g was missing from the expected values. Either add cec_meq_100g back to the dictionary or remove this column from the dataset to fix this error.

See the troubleshooting article for more help on debugging errors. article](https://wa-department-of-agriculture.github.io/soils/articles/troubleshoot.html) for more help on debugging errors.**