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Set/Update information in sdcProblem or problemInstance objects

Source: R/setInfo.R
setInfo.Rd

Function setInfo() is used to update values in sdcProblem or problemInstance objects

Usage

setInfo(object, type, index, input)

Arguments

object

an object of class sdcProblem or problemInstance

type

a scalar character specifying the kind of information that should be changed or modified; if object inherits class problemInstance, the slots are directly changed, otherwise the values within slot problemInstance are updated. Valid choices are:

  • lb: lower possible bounds for the cell

  • ub: max. upper bound for the given cell

  • LPL: lower protection level

  • SPL: sliding protection level

  • UPL: upper protection level

  • sdcStatus: cell-status

index

numeric vector defining cell-indices for which which values in a specified slot should be changed|modified

input

numeric or character vector depending on argument type with its length matching the length of argument index

  • character vector if type matches 'sdcStatus'

  • a numeric vector if type matches 'lb', 'ub', 'LPL', 'SPL' or 'UPL'

Value

a sdcProblem- or problemInstance object

Cell Status Codes

When an object of class sdcProblem is created, every cell is assigned an internal anonymization state. These codes track the lifecycle of a cell throughout the suppression process:

  • "s" ("Publishable"): The cell is safe and can be published (default).

  • "z"("Forced Publishable"): The cell must not be suppressed under any circumstances.

  • "u" (*"Primary Suppressed"): The cell is identified as sensitive and requires protection (typically assigned via primarySuppression()).

  • "x" ("Secondary Suppressed"): The cell is suppressed to protect primary sensitive cells (typically assigned via protectTable()).

  • "w" ("Extension Cell"): The cell exists in the object but will never be published. It is treated as a suppressed cell by internal algorithms. This is useful if it is known in advance that specific codes of a hierarchy will be excluded from publication.

Initially in makeProblem(), cells are coded as "s" or "z". Their status transitions to "u" or "x" as suppression algorithms are applied.

While setInfo() or change_cellstatus() allow for manual state modifications, primarySuppression() automatically identifies primary sensitive cells and assigns state "u". In protectTable(), additional cells are identified and set to "x" to ensure all primary sensitive cells are adequately protected.

Author

Bernhard Meindl bernhard.meindl@statistik.gv.at

Examples

# load example-problem with suppressions
# (same as example from ?primarySuppression)
p <- sdc_testproblem(with_supps = TRUE)

# which is the overall total?
idx <- which.max(getInfo(p, "freq")); idx
#> [1] 1

# we see that the cell with idx = 1 is the overall total and its
# anonymization state of the total can be extracted as follows:
print(getInfo(p, type = "sdcStatus")[idx])
#> [1] "s"

# we want this cell to never be suppressed
p <- setInfo(p, type = "sdcStatus", index = idx, input = "z")

# we can verify this:
print(getInfo(p, type = "sdcStatus")[idx])
#> [1] "z"

# changing slot 'UPL' for all cells
inp <- data.frame(
  strID = getInfo(p, "strID"),
  UPL_old = getInfo(p, "UPL")
)
inp$UPL_new <- inp$UPL_old + 1
p <- setInfo(p, type = "UPL", index = 1:nrow(inp), input = inp$UPL_new)