[Rd] sample (PR#2546)

[Patrick Burns]

There is rumour that some of my mail didn't go where it should have because
I don't know how to work email.  It was suggested that I summarize here.

The issue is with sample when the first argument is length 1.  Current
behaviour is:

 > sample('a', 1)
Error in sample(x, size, replace, prob) : invalid first argument
 > sample(3+0i, 1)
Error in x >= 1 : illegal comparison with complex values
 > sample(TRUE, 1)
[1] 1
 > sample(FALSE, 1)
[1] FALSE
 > sample(NA, 1)
Error in if (length(x) == 1 && x >= 1) { :
        missing value where logical needed
 > sample(.5, 1)
[1] 0.5


The proposed behaviour is:

 > sample('a', 1)
[1] "a"
 > sample(3+0i, 1)
[1] 3+0i
 > sample(TRUE, 1)
[1] TRUE
 > sample(FALSE, 1)
[1] FALSE
 > sample(NA, 1)
[1] NA
 > sample(.5, 1)
[1] 0.5


For some reason that I haven't yet grasped, the current
behaviour seems to be preferred to the proposed behaviour.

Pat Burns

patrick@burns-stat.com