Using Tau-Argus from R • rtauargus

Run τ-Argus from R

The rtauargus package provides an R interface for τ-Argus.

It allows to:

create inputs (rda, arb, hst and tab files) from data in R format ;
generate the sequence of instructions to be executed in batch mode (arb file);
launch a τ-Argus batch in command line;
retrieve the results in R.

These different operations can be executed in one go, but also in a modular way. They allow to integrate the tasks performed by τ-Argus in a processing chain written in R.

The package presents other additional functionalities, such as:

managing the protection of several tables at once;
creating a hierarchical variable from correspondence table.

It’s possible to choose a tabular or microdata approach, but the tabular one is, from now on, encouraged.

Installation

most recent stable version (recommended)

For Insee agents:

install.packages(
  "rtauargus",
  repos = "https://nexus.insee.fr/repository/r-public",
  type = "source"
)

Elsewhere:

install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github(
  "InseeFrLab/rtauargus",
  build_vignettes = FALSE,
  upgrade = "never"
)

version in development

To install a specific version, add to the directory a reference (commit or tag), for example "inseefrlab/rtauargus@v-0.4.1".

Simple example

When loading the package, the console displays some information:

library(rtauargus)

In particular, a plausible location for the τ-Argus software is predefined. This can be changed for the duration of the R session, as follows:

loc_tauargus <- "Y:/Logiciels/TauArgus/TauArgus4.2.2b1/TauArgus.exe"
options(rtauargus.tauargus_exe = loc_tauargus)

With this small adjustment done, the package is ready to be used.

For the following demonstration, a fictitious table will be used:

act_size <-
  data.frame(
    ACTIVITY = c("01","01","01","02","02","02","06","06","06","Total","Total","Total"),
    SIZE = c("tr1","tr2","Total","tr1","tr2","Total","tr1","tr2","Total","tr1","tr2","Total"),
    VAL = c(100,50,150,30,20,50,60,40,100,190,110,300),
    N_OBS = c(10,5,15,2,5,7,8,6,14,20,16,36),
    MAX = c(20,15,20,20,10,20,16,38,38,20,38,38)
  )

As primary rules, we use the two following ones:

The n-k dominance rule with n=1 and k = 85
The minimum frequency rule with n = 3 and a safety range of 10.

To get the results for the dominance rule, we need to specify the largest contributor to each cell, corresponding to the MAX variable in the tabular data.

ex1 <- tab_rtauargus(
  act_size,
  dir_name = "tauargus_files",
  files_name = "ex1",
  explanatory_vars = c("ACTIVITY","SIZE"),
  safety_rules = "FREQ(3,10)|NK(1,85)",
  value = "VAL",
  freq = "N_OBS",
  maxscore = "MAX",
  totcode = c(ACTIVITY="Total",SIZE="Total")
)
#> Start of batch procedure; file: Z:\SDC\OutilsConfidentialite\rtauargus\tauargus_files\ex1.arb
#> <OPENTABLEDATA> "Z:\SDC\OutilsConfidentialite\rtauargus\tauargus_files\ex1.tab"
#> <OPENMETADATA> "Z:\SDC\OutilsConfidentialite\rtauargus\tauargus_files\ex1.rda"
#> <SPECIFYTABLE> "ACTIVITY""SIZE"|"VAL"||
#> <SAFETYRULE> FREQ(3,10)|NK(1,85)
#> <READTABLE> 1
#> Tables have been read
#> <SUPPRESS> MOD(1,5,1,0,0)
#> Start of the modular protection for table ACTIVITY x SIZE | VAL
#> End of modular protection. Time used 0 seconds
#>                    Number of suppressions: 2
#> <WRITETABLE> (1,4,,"Z:\SDC\OutilsConfidentialite\rtauargus\tauargus_files\ex1.csv")
#> Table: ACTIVITY x SIZE | VAL has been written
#>                    Output file name: Z:\SDC\OutilsConfidentialite\rtauargus\tauargus_files\ex1.csv
#> End of TauArgus run

By default, the function displays in the console the logbook content in which user can read all steps run by τ-Argus. This can be retrieved in the logbook.txt file. With verbose = FALSE, the function can be silenced.

By default, the function returns the original dataset with one variable more, called Status, directly resulting from τ-Argus and describing the status of each cell as follows:

-A: primary secret cell because of frequency rule;
-B: primary secret cell because of dominance rule (1st contributor);
-C: primary secret cell because of frequency rule (more contributors in case when n>1);
-D: secondary secret cell;
-V: valid cells - no need to mask.

ex1
#>    ACTIVITY  SIZE VAL N_OBS MAX Status
#> 1        01 Total 150    15  20      V
#> 2        01   tr1 100    10  20      V
#> 3        01   tr2  50     5  15      V
#> 4        02 Total  50     7  20      V
#> 5        02   tr1  30     2  20      A
#> 6        02   tr2  20     5  10      D
#> 7        06 Total 100    14  38      V
#> 8        06   tr1  60     8  16      D
#> 9        06   tr2  40     6  38      B
#> 10    Total Total 300    36  38      V
#> 11    Total   tr1 190    20  20      V
#> 12    Total   tr2 110    16  38      V

All the files generated by the function are written in the specified directory (dir_name argument). The default format for the protected table is csv but it can be changed. All the τ-Argus files (.tab, .rda, .arb and .txt) are written in the same directory, too. To go further, you can consult the latest version of the τ-Argus manual is downloadable here: https://research.cbs.nl/casc/Software/TauManualV4.1.pdf.

A detailed overview is available via vignette("rtauargus").

Important notes

The functions of rtauargus calling τ-Argus require that this software be accessible from the workstation. The download of τ-Argus is done on the dedicated page of the sdcTools git repository.

_The package was developed on the basis of open source versions of τ-Argus (versions 4.2 and above), in particular the version used for this version is τ-Argus 4.2.3. It is not compatible with version 3.5.**_