Prepare SINASC live-birth microdata

Uses the official DataSUS TabWin definitions to label SINASC live-birth fields. The processor supports both the original 1994-1995 layout and the layout used from 1996 onward, including data sets that contain columns from both periods. Required dictionaries are downloaded on first use and cached for the rest of the R session.

Usage

process_sinasc(
  data,
  municipality_data = TRUE,
  labels = c("factor", "character", "none"),
  diagnostics = FALSE
)

Arguments

data: A data frame returned by fetch_datasus() with information_system = "SINASC", or a compatible layout.
municipality_data: Logical scalar. If TRUE, add municipality names and available territorial attributes for the residence municipality.
labels: Output type for categorical labels: "factor" (the default), "character", or "none" to retain the original codes.
diagnostics: Logical scalar. If TRUE, attach a processing report, including codes absent from official conversion tables. Retrieve it with processing_diagnostics().

Value

A tibble. Dates are returned as Date, counts and measurements as integer, labelled categorical fields as factors, and identifiers and free text as character.

Details

Codes absent from the official conversion table remain visible as factor levels. Dates, integer quantities, categorical variables, and identifiers retain distinct types.

Performance and cache

Processing uses vectorized code padding and CNV thresholds, parses repeated dates once per field and format, and unescapes only text containing backslashes. UTF-8 conversion is still performed for text; values marked as "bytes" bypass text normalization. Historical relation selection subsets only the source columns it needs. These optimizations are automatic.

Dictionaries are reused within the R session. For reuse across sessions, set options(microdatasus.cache_dir = datasus_cache_dir(create = TRUE)); calling datasus_cache_dir() alone does not enable persistent caching. The first processing call can include dictionary downloads and parsing. labels = "none" controls categorical output, not network access: some processors still need DEF metadata or relations for field semantics.

diagnostics = FALSE avoids collecting the optional report, and municipality_data = FALSE omits territorial enrichment when it is not needed. For requests spanning many files, use fetch_datasus() with process = TRUE, collect = FALSE, and destination to save each file separately. A processor called directly still holds its input and output in memory. See the processing guide.

Territorial enrichment uses the fixed tabMun snapshot identified by datasus_reference_tables(), not an automatically selected edition for each observation year. Enable diagnostics to record that version in the report.

References

Saldanha, R. F. (2026). SINASC – Sistema de Informação sobre Nascidos Vivos.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # interactive() && curl::has_internet()
process_sinasc(sinasc_sample)
}