These functions create a flowchart with the conections of R functions within a given path.

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me either or raise an Issue.

The get_network function within the helfRlein package is the updated version of getnetwork.R. You can install and use it with

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("STATWORX/helfRlein")

The getnetwork function will stay in its current state, so it is consistent with the blog article.

The aim of the function is to visualise the connections between R functions within a project as a flowchart. Herefore, the input a directory path to the function or a list with the functions and the outputs are an adjacency matrix and an igraph object. As an example we use the R folder of the helfRlein package:

net <- get_network(dir = "R/", simplify = TRUE)
g1 <- net$igraph
plot(g1)

The given plots looks like the following. It shows the connections of each functions (arrows) and also the relative size of the functions code (size of the points).

There are five parameters to interact with the function:

• a path dir which shall be searched.
• a character vector variations with the function's definition string - the default is c(" <- function", "<- function", "<-function").
• a pattern a string with the file suffix - the default is "\\.R$".
• a boolean simplify that removes function with no connections from the plot.
• a named list all_scripts which is an alternative to dir. This is mainly just used for testing purposes.

For a normal usage it should be enough to provide a path to the project folder.

As mentioned above, the output consists of an adjacency matrix and an igraph object. The matrix contains the number of calls for each function. The igraph object has the following properties:

• The names of the functions are used as label.
• The numer of lines of each function (without comments and empty one) are saved as the size.
• The folder's name of the first folder in the directory.
• A color corresponding to the folder.

With these properties you can improve the network plot given in the R_network_functions folder for example like this:

library(igraph)
dir <- "flowchart/R_network_functions/"

net <- get_network(dir = dir)
g1 <- net$igraph

# create plots ------------------------------------------------------------
l <- layout_with_fr(g1)
colrs <- rainbow(length(unique(V(g1)$color)))

plot(g1,
     edge.arrow.size=.1,
     edge.width = 5*E(g1)$weight/max(E(g1)$weight),
     vertex.shape="none",
     vertex.label.color=colrs[V(g1)$color],
     vertex.label.color="black",
     vertex.size = 20,
     vertex.color = colrs[V(g1)$color],
     edge.color="steelblue1",
     layout = l)
legend(x=0,
       unique(V(g1)$folder), pch=21,
       pt.bg= colrs[unique(V(g1)$color)],
       pt.cex=2, cex=.8, bty="n", ncol=1)

For more details how the function works you can visit our blog at: https://www.statworx.com/de/blog/flowcharts-of-functions