4_Variable Titles

In addition to the prescribed variable names (year, state, county, place, subgroup_type, and subgroup) each dataset will also have (a) variable(s) specific to the metric. 

In previous rounds of this work, we renamed variables for metrics when building the database so the names are consistent and descriptive. All names start with the following: 

• shares prefixed with share_: For example, the variable showing the share with debt in collections is titled share_debt_col 

• percentiles prefixed with pctl_: For example, the variable showing the 20th percentile of income is titled pctl_income_20 

• rates prefixed with rate_: For example, the variable showing the reported violent crimes per 100,000 people is titled rate_violent_crime 

• counts prefixed with count_: For example, the variable showing the number of public-school children who are ever homeless during the school year is titled count_homeless 

• index prefixed with index_ : For example, the variable showing the air quality index is titled index_air_quality 

Moving forward, please use these standardized variable names in the program for each of your assigned metrics. Variable names should only include lower case letters, numbers, and underscores (lower camel case, i.e. camel_case).