Unexpected Behavior: checkbox_choices misses non-english alphabet characters

[pwildenhain]

Describe the behavior: Please provide a clear and concise description of the scenario and the behavior. Be careful not to include tokens, PHI (protected health information), or other information that should not be public!

Certain non-english characters (such as ä) are missed by checkbox_choices()

site_selections <- "1, Hospital A | 2, Hospitäl B | 3, Hospital C"
REDCapR::checkbox_choices(site_selections)
#>   id      label
#> 1  1 Hospital A
#> 2  3 Hospital C

^{Created on 2023-01-24 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Expected behavior: A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

checkbox_choices() should be able to handle these characters, especially considering that REDCap is an international phenomenon

Suggested Fix:

Add non-english characters to the regex search pattern in checkbox_choices():

REDCapR/R/metadata-utilities.R

Line 119 in 716f4da

pattern_checkboxes <- "(?<=\\A| \\| )(?<id>\\d{1,}), (?<label>[\x21-\x7B\x7D-\x7E ]{1,})(?= \\| |\\Z)"

Specifically this section: \x21-\x7B\x7D-\x7E. Instead of ending the search at character x7E (~), I suggest ending at xAD (¡), though I think a case could easily be made that there is no harm in extending all the way to xFE (■).

See here for complete list of character codes: https://www.codetable.net/

As you can tell I've already wasted a bunch of time researched this thoroughly, and I'm happy to submit a PR + test cases since I ❤️ the checkbox_choices() function.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: MacOS Montery 12.6.1
• REDCap version: N/A
• REDCapR Version: 1.1.0

[wibeasley]

A PR would be great. Thanks @pwildenhain.

I've recognized that non-ascii characters have been weakness/limitation of REDCapR for a while. I rarely encounter them in my projects, and I want to accommodate those who do. But many of my attempts to recruit people who use them haven't gone far (eg, #290, #296, #354).

If anyone would like to be involved, please tell me.

[pwildenhain]

Geez radio silence haha. I bet they have to use REDCap for like one project, build a workaround, and then move on 😂

People like you and I -- we were born into REDCap, molded by it.

I'll submit a PR 💪