Read a text file and redact it (no data.frame)

Reads a .txt file line-by-line, applies in-function redaction, and writes a redacted file. No speaker/text data.frame is created; the file is treated as a sequence of lines. You can choose the output format (TXT/DOCX/VTT) via out_format similar to ghost_vtt() and ghost_batch().

Usage

ghost_txt(
  filepath,
  interviewers,
  interviewees = character(),
  redact_other = character(),
  redact_interviewer = FALSE,
  include_common_names = FALSE,
  redacted_token = "[REDACTED]",
  add_blank_line_between_turns = TRUE,
  output_path = NULL,
  suffix = "_redacted",
  out_format = c("txt", "docx", "vtt"),
  report_redacted = FALSE
)

Arguments

filepath: Path to a .txt file.
interviewers: Character vector of interviewer names.
interviewees: Character vector of interviewee/participant names.
redact_other: Other words/phrases to redact.
redact_interviewer: If TRUE, also redact interviewer names.
include_common_names: If TRUE, also redact a default list of common names (e.g., top US baby names, if available via ghosted::common_names_default).
redacted_token: Replacement token used for redactions (names and other phrases).
add_blank_line_between_turns: Logical; for DOCX outputs, insert a blank line between turns.
output_path: Path for the redacted file. If NULL (default), set to the same directory and base name as filepath with _redacted before the extension. The extension is chosen based on out_format (e.g. notes.txt -> notes_redacted.txt for out_format = "txt", or notes_redacted.docx / notes_redacted.vtt otherwise).
suffix: Suffix to append to the base filename (default: "_redacted"). Only used when output_path is NULL.
out_format: One of "txt", "docx", or "vtt" controlling the output file type. Defaults to "txt".
report_redacted: If TRUE, print to the R console which phrases were found and redacted (names and other).

Value

The path to the written output file (invisibly).

Examples

# Writes notes_redacted.txt in same folder, returns path:
# ghost_txt("notes.txt", interviewers = "Dr. Smith", interviewees = "Jane Doe")
# Write as DOCX instead of TXT:
# ghost_txt("notes.txt", interviewers = "Dr. Smith", interviewees = "Jane Doe",
#   out_format = "docx")
# With common names and redaction report:
# ghost_txt("notes.txt", interviewers = "Dr. Smith", interviewees = "Jane Doe",
#   include_common_names = TRUE, report_redacted = TRUE)