Getting Started

The YAML Specification Format

Each ADaM domain is defined in a YAML file. The simplest case is a subject-level dataset like ADSL, which only has columns:

id: ADSL
label: Subject-Level Analysis Dataset
class: SUBJECT LEVEL ANALYSIS DATASET
structure: One record per subject
keys: USUBJID

population:
  base:
    - domain: DM
      depends: [USUBJID]
      filter: USUBJID != ""

columns:
  - id: STUDYID
    label: Study Identifier
    method: DM.STUDYID
    core: Req
  - id: USUBJID
    label: Unique Subject Identifier
    method: DM.USUBJID
    core: Req
  # ... more columns ...

Top-level keys define the domain identity (id, label, class, structure, keys). The population block declares which source domains supply raw data and what row-level filters apply. The mighty code generator reads this to build the initial population step; mighty.metadata stores it but does not execute it.

Each column has an id, label, and core conformance level: Req (Required), Cond (Conditionally Required), or Perm (Permissible). The method field describes how the column is derived. A DOMAIN.COLUMN pattern (e.g., DM.STUDYID) means the column is a predecessor — its metadata can be inherited from the referenced source via populate_sparse().

BDS (Basic Data Structure) domains like ADVS add parameters and rows:

id: ADVS
label: Vital Signs Analysis Dataset
keys: [USUBJID, PARAMCD, AVISITN]

parameters:
  - id: BMI
    label: Body Mass Index (kg/m^2)
    columns:
      - id: AVAL
        method: Derived from height and weight

rows:
  - id: BASELINE
    method: Add baseline visit as a new row

See vignette("adam-schema") for the full schema reference.

Working with a Single Domain

The package provides a consistent set of verbs for columns, parameters, and rows:

Action	Columns	Parameters	Rows
List	`list_columns()`	`list_parameters()`	`list_rows()`
Select	`select_column()`	`select_parameter()`	`select_row()`
Add	`add_column()`	`add_parameter()`	`add_row()`
Update	`update_column()`	`update_parameter()`	`update_row()`
Move	`move_column()`	`move_parameter()`	`move_row()`
Remove	`remove_columns()`	`remove_parameters()`	`remove_rows()`

The remove_* functions accept a character vector to remove multiple items at once.

Loading and Inspecting

Load a domain specification from a YAML file with mighty_domain(). The file is validated against the ADaM JSON schema on load.

path <- system.file("examples", "advs.yml", package = "mighty.metadata")
advs <- mighty_domain(path)
advs
#> <mighty.metadata::mighty_domain>
#> ADVS: Vital Signs Analysis Dataset
#> Class: BASIC DATA STRUCTURE
#> Keys: USUBJID, PARAMCD, and AVISITN

Use list_*() functions to see what the specification contains:

list_columns(advs)
#>  [1] "STUDYID"  "USUBJID"  "SAFFL"    "TRTP"     "VISITNUM" "AVISITN" 
#>  [7] "AVISIT"   "PARAMCD"  "PARAM"    "AVAL"     "AVALC"
list_parameters(advs)
#> [1] "BMI"    "BMIGRP"
list_rows(advs)
#> [1] "BASELINE"

Drill into a specific column with select_column():

select_column(advs, id = "AVAL") |>
  str()
#> List of 4
#>  $ id    : chr "AVAL"
#>  $ label : chr "Analysis Value"
#>  $ method: chr "VS.VSSTRESN"
#>  $ core  : chr "Req"

Modifying Columns

Every modification automatically re-validates the domain against the schema. All column functions return the modified domain, so they compose naturally into a pipe chain. Here we add an actual treatment column sourced from ADSL, update a label, and drop an unused column:

advs <- mighty_domain(path) |>
  add_column(
    id = "TRTA",
    label = "Actual Treatment",
    method = "ADSL.TRT01A",
    .pos = 5
  ) |>
  update_column(id = "AVAL", label = "Analysis Value (Numeric)") |>
  remove_columns(id = "AVALC")

list_columns(advs)
#>  [1] "STUDYID"  "USUBJID"  "SAFFL"    "TRTP"     "TRTA"     "VISITNUM"
#>  [7] "AVISITN"  "AVISIT"   "PARAMCD"  "PARAM"    "AVAL"

Schema Validation

Validation runs on every modification and on initial load. You can also call validate() explicitly at any time:

validate(advs)

If a modification violates the schema, you get an immediate error. For example, adding a column with a duplicate ID fails:

advs |> add_column(id = "AVAL", label = "Duplicate")
#> Error in `check_unique_ids()`:
#> ! Duplicate `id` entries found:
#> ✖ columns.id: AVAL

Modifying Parameters

Parameters use the same verbs. The key difference is the columns argument in add_parameter(), which accepts a nested list of column overrides specific to that parameter:

select_parameter(advs, id = "BMI") |>
  str()
#> List of 3
#>  $ id     : chr "BMI"
#>  $ label  : chr "Body Mass Index (kg/m^2)"
#>  $ columns:List of 1
#>   ..$ :List of 2
#>   .. ..$ id    : chr "AVAL"
#>   .. ..$ method: chr "Derived from height and weight"

advs <- advs |>
  add_parameter(
    id = "WSTCIR",
    label = "Waist Circumference (cm)",
    columns = list(
      list(id = "AVAL", method = "VS.VSSTRESN")
    )
  )

list_parameters(advs)
#> [1] "BMI"    "BMIGRP" "WSTCIR"

Update and remove work as expected:

advs <- advs |>
  update_parameter(id = "WSTCIR", label = "Waist Circumference") |>
  remove_parameters(id = "BMIGRP")

list_parameters(advs)
#> [1] "BMI"    "WSTCIR"

Rows

Rows follow the same pattern. Inspect a row with select_row():

select_row(advs, id = "BASELINE") |>
  str()
#> List of 2
#>  $ id    : chr "BASELINE"
#>  $ method: chr "Add baseline visit as a new row"

Saving Changes

Write the modified domain back to YAML with write_config():

out <- tempfile(fileext = ".yml")
write_config(advs, path = out)

The written file can be loaded back with mighty_domain().

Working with a Study

Loading a Study

Load all domain specifications from a directory with mighty_study(). The directory can contain _study.yml (study-level properties) and _mighty.yml (mighty framework configuration).

study_path <- system.file("examples", package = "mighty.metadata")
study <- mighty_study(study_path)
study
#> <mighty.metadata::mighty_study/list/S7_object>
#> @ mighty: `external_data`
#> @ study: `study_id`
#> $ ADAE: <mighty.metadata::mighty_domain>
#> $ ADSL: <mighty.metadata::mighty_domain>
#> $ ADVS: <mighty.metadata::mighty_domain>

Access individual domains with $. Study-level properties from _study.yml are stored in @study and mighty framework configuration from _mighty.yml is stored in @mighty. The @ operator accesses properties of S7 objects:

names(study)
#> [1] "ADAE" "ADSL" "ADVS"
str(study@study)
#> List of 1
#>  $ study_id: chr "example_study"
str(study@mighty)
#> List of 1
#>  $ external_data:List of 3
#>   ..$ :List of 2
#>   .. ..$ id  : chr "DM"
#>   .. ..$ keys: chr [1:2] "STUDYID" "USUBJID"
#>   ..$ :List of 2
#>   .. ..$ id  : chr "VS"
#>   .. ..$ keys: chr [1:2] "STUDYID" "USUBJID"
#>   ..$ :List of 2
#>   .. ..$ id  : chr "AE"
#>   .. ..$ keys: chr [1:2] "STUDYID" "USUBJID"

The _study.yml file provides the study_id. The _mighty.yml file provides external_data definitions (source domains and their keys).

Populating Core Variables

A “core variable” is an ADSL column that should appear in every consumer domain (ADVS, ADAE, etc.) as a predecessor column — for example, SEX and RACE for subgroup analyses.

Note: core (string: Req/Cond/Perm) records the ADaM conformance level and is unrelated to “core variable” propagation. The two fields that control propagation are:

is_core (Boolean, column-level in ADSL) — marks a column for propagation to consumer domains.
usecore (Boolean, domain-level) — signals that a domain should receive the propagated columns. This is a top-level YAML property on the consumer domain, so it is set via list assignment rather than update_column().

populate_core() reads these flags and adds the marked ADSL columns to each consumer domain as predecessor columns.

The bundled examples do not include these fields, so we add them here to demonstrate the workflow:

study$ADSL <- study$ADSL |>
  update_column(id = "SEX", is_core = TRUE) |>
  update_column(id = "RACE", is_core = TRUE)

study$ADAE[["usecore"]] <- TRUE

study <- study |>
  populate_core()

list_columns(study$ADAE)
#>  [1] "STUDYID"  "USUBJID"  "AESEQ"    "AETERM"   "AEDECOD"  "AEBODSYS"
#>  [7] "ASTDT"    "AENDT"    "TRTEMFL"  "SEX"      "RACE"

SEX and RACE now appear in ADAE as predecessor columns sourced from ADSL.

Populating Predecessor Metadata

Columns that reference another domain (e.g., method: ADSL.SAFFL) can inherit metadata from the referenced column. populate_sparse() performs this lookup across the study, filling in only missing properties.

# Before: SAFFL in ADVS references ADSL.SAFFL
select_column(study$ADVS, id = "SAFFL") |>
  str()
#> List of 4
#>  $ id    : chr "SAFFL"
#>  $ label : chr "Safety Population Flag"
#>  $ method: chr "ADSL.SAFFL"
#>  $ core  : chr "Req"

study <- study |> populate_sparse()

# After: origin inherited from ADSL
select_column(study$ADVS, id = "SAFFL") |>
  str()
#> List of 5
#>  $ id    : chr "SAFFL"
#>  $ label : chr "Safety Population Flag"
#>  $ method: chr "ADSL.SAFFL"
#>  $ core  : chr "Req"
#>  $ origin: chr "Predecessor"

The Complete Study Pipeline

Here is the full pipeline in one block:

study <- mighty_study(study_path)

# Mark ADSL core variables
study$ADSL <- study$ADSL |>
  update_column(id = "SEX", is_core = TRUE) |>
  update_column(id = "RACE", is_core = TRUE)

# Mark consumer domains
study$ADAE[["usecore"]] <- TRUE

# Run the pipeline
study <- study |>
  populate_core() |>
  populate_sparse()

If your YAML files already include the is_core and usecore flags, the entire pipeline collapses to a single call. Passing populate = TRUE is equivalent to calling populate_core() then populate_sparse() after loading:

study <- mighty_study(study_path, populate = TRUE)

Saving a Study

Write all domain files, _study.yml, and _mighty.yml back to disk with write_config():

out <- withr::local_tempdir()
write_config(study, path = out)
list.files(out)
#> [1] "_mighty.yml" "_study.yml"  "adae.yml"    "adsl.yml"    "advs.yml"

Omit path to write back to the original directory (study@path).

Conditional Metadata

Pooled specifications can serve multiple studies by using conditional include fields. Conditions are wrapped in {braces} and evaluated as R expressions (via glue::glue_data()) against the study’s @study values.

study <- mighty_study(study_path)

study$ADVS <- study$ADVS |>
  update_column(
    id = "STUDYID",
    include = "{study_id == 'example_study'}"
  )

When study_id in @study matches, the condition is TRUE and the column is kept:

resolved <- resolve_includes(study)
list_columns(resolved$ADVS)
#>  [1] "STUDYID"  "USUBJID"  "SAFFL"    "TRTP"     "VISITNUM" "AVISITN" 
#>  [7] "AVISIT"   "PARAMCD"  "PARAM"    "AVAL"     "AVALC"

Override with a different value and the column is removed:

resolved <- resolve_includes(study, info = list(study_id = "other"))
list_columns(resolved$ADVS)
#>  [1] "USUBJID"  "SAFFL"    "TRTP"     "VISITNUM" "AVISITN"  "AVISIT"  
#>  [7] "PARAMCD"  "PARAM"    "AVAL"     "AVALC"

include works on parameters and rows too, not just columns.

Creating a Flat Column Table

create_md_col() flattens the study’s column specifications into a single tibble. This is the format consumed by downstream mighty tools.

create_md_col(study)
#> # A tibble: 32 × 15
#>    table_id table_label      order id    label origin key   is_core core  method
#>    <chr>    <chr>            <int> <chr> <chr> <chr>  <lgl> <lgl>   <chr> <chr> 
#>  1 ADAE     Adverse Events …     1 STUD… Stud… <NA>   FALSE NA      Req   AE.ST…
#>  2 ADAE     Adverse Events …     2 USUB… Uniq… <NA>   TRUE  NA      Req   AE.US…
#>  3 ADAE     Adverse Events …     3 AESEQ Sequ… <NA>   TRUE  NA      Cond  AE.AE…
#>  4 ADAE     Adverse Events …     4 AETE… Repo… <NA>   FALSE NA      Req   AE.AE…
#>  5 ADAE     Adverse Events …     5 AEDE… Dict… <NA>   FALSE NA      Cond  AE.AE…
#>  6 ADAE     Adverse Events …     6 AEBO… Body… <NA>   FALSE NA      Cond  AE.AE…
#>  7 ADAE     Adverse Events …     7 ASTDT Anal… <NA>   FALSE NA      Cond  Deriv…
#>  8 ADAE     Adverse Events …     8 AENDT Anal… <NA>   FALSE NA      Cond  Deriv…
#>  9 ADAE     Adverse Events …     9 TRTE… Trea… <NA>   FALSE NA      Cond  Deriv…
#> 10 ADSL     Subject-Level A…     1 STUD… Stud… <NA>   FALSE NA      Req   DM.ST…
#> # ℹ 22 more rows
#> # ℹ 5 more variables: codelist <chr>, format_type <chr>, format_length <int>,
#> #   format_display <chr>, comment <chr>

Next Steps

This vignette covered the core workflows: mighty_domain() for single datasets, mighty_study() for collections, populate_core() and populate_sparse() for metadata propagation, write_config() for saving changes, resolve_includes() for conditional specifications, and create_md_col() for flat output.

To learn more:

vignette("adam-schema") documents the domain YAML schema reference
vignette("study-schema") documents the study YAML schema reference
vignette("mighty-schema") documents the mighty YAML schema reference
The package reference lists all available functions