Add upanddowns function(s) to dfeR

[Lsnaathorst1]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

We don't currently have anything in dfeR which helps with describing changes/increases/decreases when writing commentary.

Describe the solution you'd like

We could add to dfeR to include functions similar to in the upanddowns package DfT have: https://github.com/department-for-transport-public/upsanddowns

These sort of functions are used within the EduStats tool and are created there. It could be worth checking what functions are used in EduStats and whether we could use some of that code. EduStats could then potentially use dfeR for these instead of creating the functions within that project.

[jen-machin]

dfeR: Add upsanddowns function(s) to dfeR

[mzayeddfe]

@Lsnaathorst1 thank you for this suggestion! very neat functions and we made something similar in HMRC. I could see a use for this in the edustats tool but also for other dashboards. It would be good to think about our approach to these functions.

For example, do we want to only compare two values or multiple values? Automated commentary may get more complex if we have comparison of multiple values instead of two.

[Lsnaathorst1]

Interestingly, it doesn't look like the compareValues function is in use in the EduStats tool and the up_down function is used twice. From my work on it, I know some of this was due to the restriction with what we could do with the functions quickly.

To answer your question above, may be worth talking with Gessienne and Charlotte as one of the potential users of any upsanddowns function, to see whether it could be used within EduStats and what they'd find most useful to be included if so?

[Ethan-Roy-2025]

Interestingly, it doesn't look like the compareValues function is in use in the EduStats tool and the up_down function is used twice. From my work on it, I know some of this was due to the restriction with what we could do with the functions quickly.

To answer your question above, may be worth talking with Gessienne and Charlotte as one of the potential users of any upsanddowns function, to see whether it could be used within EduStats and what they'd find most useful to be included if so?

In the Edustats tool I mainly use an up_down() function and an increase_decrease() function. Both only compare two values at at time. There is a more complex function named compareValues() that I do not use, but this looks to compare only 2 values also.

Features I like of these are that they are easy to use (only requiring the numbers to be compared as arguments, with an optional tense argument in increase_decrease(), which changes the output to increased and decreased. This option to use past tense is extremely useful since different stats teams write their lines in different ways, some preferring a passive voice and some preferring an active voice.)

I would like a tool where I can select more wording pairs, which is what wording() does within the compareValues() function. I think I haven't use this because compareValues() is an intimating function and I don't really understand what it is doing.

My ideal would be a function as simple as increase_decrease(), but has an argument to specify how the comparison is worded (up or down, increase or decrease, fewer or more), while keeping the option to change the tense.

I am happy to share code or talk through any of this further if that would prove useful, thank you!