6.182
Generate Synthetic Pharma Sales Data for CSV and XML in R

Introduction

Synthetic data is valuable for testing data import, data manipulation, and data analysis programs and databases. This tutorial shows how to generate synthetic data in R and saves them as linked CSV and XML files.

Generate Synthetic Data

Data Values

drugs <- c('Xipramin','Colophrazen','Diaprogenix','Xinoprozen','Alaraphosol',
           'Gerantrazeophem','Clobromizen','Bhiktarvizem')
cost.per.tablet <- c(0.72,1.23,0.04,2.82,0.92,1.87,1.44,3.87)
customers <- data.frame(
  custName = c('Erat Pharma', 
             'Eleifend GMBH', 
             'Varius Plc', 
             'Luctus Aliquet Plc', 
             'Eu Dolor Companie', 
             'Lorem Luctus', 
             'At Pretium LLC', 
             'Enim PC', 
             'Adipiscing Mauris Inc.', 
             'Proin Dolor Institut', 
             'Nisl Quisque', 
             'Vitae Risus Incorporated',
             'Plaxus Medical',
             'Eastern Hospital Group'),
  custCountry = c('Germany',
                  'Germany',
                  'Brazil',
                  'Brazil',
                  'Brazil',
                  'USA',
                  'USA',
                  'USA',
                  'USA',
                  'Germany',
                  'Brazil',
                  'USA',
                  'USA',
                  'USA'),
  custRep = c(100,
              100,
              887,
              887,
              887,
              332,
              332,
              203,
              203,
              221,
              887,
              203,
              119,
              119)
)
df.Reps <- data.frame(repID = c(100,887,332,203,221,655,119,988),
                      repFN = c('Helmut','Walison','Lynette','Aneeta','Veronika','Ralph','Prasad','Xi'),
                      repLN = c('Schwab','da Silva','McRowe','Kappoorthy','Sixt','Klinger','Patel','Zheng'),
                      repTR = c('EMEA','South America',
                                'East','West','EMEA',
                                'West','EMEA','EMEA'))

Generate sales transactions.

numTxns <- 100
df.Sales <- data.frame(
  txnID = (1:numTxns) + 1000,
  date = vector(mode = "character", numTxns),
  cust = vector(mode = "character", numTxns),
  prod = vector(mode = "character", numTxns),
  qty = vector(mode = "numeric", numTxns),
  amount = vector(mode = "numeric", numTxns),
  country = vector(mode = "character", numTxns),
  repID = vector(mode = "numeric", numTxns),
  row.names = NULL
)

yearsMin <- 2020
yearsMax <- 2022

for (t in 1:numTxns)
{
  # generate date
  month <- round(runif(1, min = 1, max = 12),0)
  day <- round(runif(1, min = 1, max = 28),0)
  year <- round(runif(1, min = yearsMin, max = yearsMin),0)
  date <- paste0(month, '/', day, '/', year)
  
  df.Sales$date[t] <- date
  
  # generate product info
  prodIndex <- round(runif(1, min = 1, max = (length(drugs))), 0)
  df.Sales$prod[t] <- drugs[prodIndex]
  df.Sales$qty[t] <- round(runif(1, min = 1, max = 20), 0) * 100
  df.Sales$amount[t] <- df.Sales$qty[t] * cost.per.tablet[prodIndex]
  
  # generate customer info
  custIndex <- round(runif(1, min = 1, max = (nrow(customers))), 0)
  df.Sales$cust[t] <- customers$custName[custIndex]
  df.Sales$repID[t] <- customers$custRep[custIndex]
  df.Sales$country[t] <- customers$custCountry[custIndex]
}

Save Data

Save as CSV

csv.fn <- "pharmaSalesTxn.csv"
write.csv(df.Sales, csv.fn, row.names = F)

csv.fn <- "pharmaReps.csv"
write.csv(df.Reps, csv.fn, row.names = F)

Save as XML

xml.fn <- "pharmaSalesTxn.xml"
xml <- '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n\n'
xml <- paste0(xml, '<txns>', '\n')

for (r in 1:nrow(df.Sales))
{
  xml <- paste0(xml, '  <txn>', '\n')
  for (c in names(df.Sales))
  {
    xml <- paste0(xml, '    ', '<', c, '>')
    xml <- paste0(xml, df.Sales[r,c])
    xml <- paste0(xml, '</', c, '>', '\n')
  }
  xml <- paste0(xml, '  </txn>', '\n')
}

xml <- paste0(xml, '</txns>')

conn <- file(xml.fn)
writeLines(xml, conn)

xml.fn <- "pharmaReps.xml"
xml <- '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n\n'
xml <- paste0(xml, '<salesteam>', '\n')

for (r in 1:nrow(df.Reps))
{
  xml <- paste0(xml, '  <rep ', 'rID="r', df.Reps[r,1], '">\n')
  xml <- paste0(xml, '    <firstName>', df.Reps[r,2], '</firstName>\n')
  xml <- paste0(xml, '    <lastName>', df.Reps[r,3], '</lastName>\n')
  xml <- paste0(xml, '    <territory>', df.Reps[r,4], '</territory>\n')
  xml <- paste0(xml, '  </rep>', '\n')
}

xml <- paste0(xml, '</salesteam>')

conn <- file(xml.fn)
writeLines(xml, conn)

Conclusion

This tutorial provided an example on how to generate synthetic data as CSV and XML files.

Tutorial

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Files & Resources

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