Extract schedule and instructor data from a section XML node

Processes schedule and instructor information from a Stanford course section XML node. This function extracts meeting times, locations, and detailed instructor information, combining multiple instructors' data into semicolon-separated lists.

Usage

extract_schedule_data(section)

Arguments

section

An xml2 node object representing a course section. Expected to contain child nodes for:

• schedule nodes, each containing:

  • days

  • startTime

  • endTime

  • location

  • Optional instructor nodes, each containing:

    • name

    • sunet

    • role

Value

A tibble containing schedule information, or NULL if no schedules are found. The tibble includes:

Basic schedule information:

• section_id: Character. Section identifier (from classId)

• days: Character. Days of the week (e.g., "MonWedFri")

• start_time: Character. Start time

• end_time: Character. End time

• location: Character. Meeting location

Instructor information (NA if no instructors):

• instructors: Character. Combined strings in "name (role)" format

• instructor_names: Character. Semicolon-separated list of names

• instructor_sunets: Character. Semicolon-separated list of SUNet IDs

• instructor_roles: Character. Semicolon-separated list of roles

Details

The function performs the following steps:

1. Locates all schedule nodes within the section

2. For each schedule:

   • Extracts basic schedule information (days, times, location)

   • Processes instructor information if present

   • Combines multiple instructors' data into consolidated strings

Instructor information is formatted in several ways:

• Combined format: "name (role)"

• Separate fields: names, SUNet IDs, and roles in semicolon-separated lists

If no instructors are found, instructor fields are set to NA.

Error handling

If schedule data extraction fails, the function throws an error with details.

See also

• xml2::xml_find_all() for XML node selection

• xml2::xml_text() for text extraction

• extract_section_data() for the parent function using this data

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
section_node <- xml2::xml_find_first(course_node, ".//section")
schedule_data <- extract_schedule_data(section_node)
} # }