A User-Friendly 'shiny' Application for Exploring Associations and Visual Patterns.
AssociationExplorer2
AssociationExplorer2 is an R package that provides a Shiny application for exploring statistical associations within multivariate datasets.
The app offers interactive tools for examining relationships between variables, including:
- correlation networks
- bivariate visualizations (numeric–numeric, numeric–categorical, categorical–categorical)
- summary tables describing variable distributions
The application supports optional survey weights and range-based filters for association strengths, making it suitable for exploring complex or survey-based datasets.
Installation
From CRAN
install.packages("AssociationExplorer2")
Development version from GitHub
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("AntoineSoetewey/AssociationExplorer2")
Launching the Shiny Application
You can launch the Shiny application using the following command:
library(AssociationExplorer2)
run_associationexplorer()
This opens the interactive Shiny interface in your default web browser.
Features
- Correlation networks
Visualize associations between variables using weighted network diagrams. Supports numeric–numeric, numeric–categorical, and categorical–categorical associations.
- Bivariate visualizations
Generate scatter plots, mean plots, and contingency tables depending on variable types.
- Survey weights
Users may optionally specify a survey weight variable. Weighted statistics and associations are computed where applicable.
- Range-based association filtering
Instead of setting a single cutoff threshold, users can filter associations based on minimum and maximum ranges.
- Data upload interface
Users can load their own datasets in common formats (CSV, Excel). For CSV files, the separator must be a comma (,) and decimals must use a dot (.). A small demonstration dataset is included with the package.
Exemple
library(AssociationExplorer2)
# Launch the application
run_associationexplorer()
Upload your dataset through the interface, select the variables of interest, adjust the thresholds or weights, and explore the resulting association structures.
Included Data
The package includes a small demonstration dataset suitable for illustrating the app’s key functionalities. Users can upload CSV or Excel files through the interface to analyze their own data. CSV files must use comma-separated values and dot decimals.
Reporting Issues
If you encounter a bug or would like to request a feature, please open an issue:
https://github.com/AntoineSoetewey/AssociationExplorer2/issues
License
This package is released under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.
Citation
If you use AssociationExplorer2 in your work, please cite the associated paper:
Soetewey, A., Heuchenne, C., Claes, A., & Descampe, A. (2026). AssociationExplorer: A user-friendly shiny application for exploring statistical associations. SoftwareX, 33(102483). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2025.102483
You may also cite the R package itself. A complete citation for both the package and the paper can be obtained via:
citation("AssociationExplorer2")