[Rd] stopifnot() does not stop at first non-TRUE argument

Serguei Sokol sokol at insa-toulouse.fr
Mon May 15 16:32:20 CEST 2017


Le 15/05/2017 à 15:37, Martin Maechler a écrit :
>>>>>> Serguei Sokol <sokol at insa-toulouse.fr>
>>>>>>      on Mon, 15 May 2017 13:14:34 +0200 writes:
>      > I see in the archives that the attachment cannot pass.
>      > So, here is the code:
>
>      [....... MM: I needed to reformat etc to match closely to
>       the current source code which is in
>       	 https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/R/stop.R
>       or its corresponding github mirror
>          https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/trunk/src/library/base/R/stop.R
>      ]
>
>      > Best,
>      > Serguei.
>
> Yes, something like that seems even simpler than Peter's
> suggestion...
>
> It currently breaks 'make check' in the R sources,
> specifically in tests/reg-tests-2.R (lines 6574 ff),
> the new code now gives
>
>    > ## error messages from (C-level) evalList
>    > tst <- function(y) { stopifnot(is.numeric(y)); y+ 1 }
>    > try(tst())
>    Error in eval(cl.i, pfr) : argument "y" is missing, with no default
>
> whereas previously it gave
>
>    Error in stopifnot(is.numeric(y)) :
>       argument "y" is missing, with no default
>
>
> But I think that change (of call stack in such an error case) is
> unavoidable and not a big problem.
It can be avoided but at price of customizing error() and warning() calls with something like:
wrn <- function(w) {w$call <- cl.i; warning(w)}
err <- function(e) {e$call <- cl.i; stop(e)}
...
tryCatch(r <- eval(cl.i, pfr), warning=wrn, error=err)

Serguei.

>
> --
>
> I'm still curious about Hervé's idea on using  switch()  for the
> issue.
>
> Martin
>
>
>      > Le 15/05/2017 à 12:48, Serguei Sokol a écrit :
>      >> Hello,
>      >>
>      >> I am a new on this list, so I introduce myself very briefly:
>      >> my background is applied mathematics, more precisely scientific calculus
>      >> applied for modeling metabolic systems, I am author/maintainer of
>      >> few packages (Deriv, rmumps, arrApply).
>      >>
>      >> Now, on the subject of this discussion, I must say that I don't really understand
>      >> Peter's argument:
>      >>
>      >> >>> To do it differently, you would have to do something like
>      >> >>>
>      >> >>> dots <- match.call(expand.dots=FALSE)$...
>      >> >>>
>      >> >>> and then explicitly evaluate each argument in turn in the caller
>      >> >>> frame. This amount of nonstandard evaluation sounds like it would
>      >> >>> incur a performance penalty, which could be undesirable.
>      >> The first line of the current stopifnot()
>      >> n <- length(ll <- list(...))
>      >> already evaluates _all_ of the arguments
>      >> in the caller frame. So to do the same only
>      >> on a part of them (till the first FALSE or NA occurs)
>      >> cannot be more penalizing than the current version, right?
>      >>
>      >> I attach here a slightly modified version called stopifnot_new()
>      >> which works in accordance with the man page and
>      >> where there are only two additional calls: parent.frame() and eval().
>      >> I don't think it can be considered as real performance penalty
>      >> as the same or bigger amount of (implicit) evaluations was
>      >> already done in the current version:
>      >>
>      >>> source("stopifnot_new.R")
>      >>> stopifnot_new(3 == 5, as.integer(2^32), a <- 12)
>      >> Error: 3 == 5 is not TRUE
>      >>> a
>      >> Error: object 'a' not found
>      >>
>      >> Best,
>      >> Serguei.
>      >>
>      >>
>      >> Le 15/05/2017 à 10:39, Martin Maechler a écrit :
>      >>>>>>>> Hervé Pagès <hpages at fredhutch.org>
>      >>>>>>>> on Wed, 3 May 2017 12:08:26 -0700 writes:
>      >>> > On 05/03/2017 12:04 PM, Hervé Pagès wrote:
>      >>> >> Not sure why the performance penalty of nonstandard evaluation would
>      >>> >> be more of a concern here than for something like switch().
>      >>>
>      >>> > which is actually a primitive. So it seems that there is at least
>      >>> > another way to go than 'dots <- match.call(expand.dots=FALSE)$...'
>      >>>
>      >>> > Thanks, H.
>      >>>
>      >>> >>
>      >>> >> If that can't/won't be fixed, what about fixing the man page so it's
>      >>> >> in sync with the current behavior?
>      >>> >>
>      >>> >> Thanks, H.
>      >>>
>      >>> Being back from vacations,...
>      >>> I agree that something should be done here, if not to the code than at
>      >>> least to the man page.
>      >>>
>      >>> For now, I'd like to look a bit longer into a possible change to the function.
>      >>> Peter mentioned a NSE way to fix the problem and you mentioned switch().
>      >>>
>      >>> Originally, stopifnot() was only a few lines of code and meant to be
>      >>> "self-explaining" by just reading its definition, and I really would like
>      >>> to not walk too much away from that original idea.
>      >>> How did you (Herve) think to use  switch()  here?
>      >>>
>      >>>
>      >>>
>      >>> >> On 05/03/2017 02:26 AM, peter dalgaard wrote:
>      >>> >>> The first line of stopifnot is
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> n <- length(ll <- list(...))
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> which takes ALL arguments and forms a list of them. This implies
>      >>> >>> evaluation, so explains the effect that you see.
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> To do it differently, you would have to do something like
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> dots <- match.call(expand.dots=FALSE)$...
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> and then explicitly evaluate each argument in turn in the caller
>      >>> >>> frame. This amount of nonstandard evaluation sounds like it would
>      >>> >>> incur a performance penalty, which could be undesirable.
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> If you want to enforce the order of evaluation, there is always
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> stopifnot(A) stopifnot(B)
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>> -pd
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>>> On 3 May 2017, at 02:50 , Hervé Pagès <hpages at fredhutch.org>
>      >>> >>>> wrote:
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> Hi,
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> It's surprising that stopifnot() keeps evaluating its arguments
>      >>> >>>> after it reaches the first one that is not TRUE:
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> > stopifnot(3 == 5, as.integer(2^32), a <- 12) Error: 3 == 5 is
>      >>> >>>> not TRUE In addition: Warning message: In stopifnot(3 == 5,
>      >>> >>>> as.integer(2^32), a <- 12) : NAs introduced by coercion to integer
>      >>> >>>> range > a [1] 12
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> The details section in its man page actually suggests that it
>      >>> >>>> should stop at the first non-TRUE argument:
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> ‘stopifnot(A, B)’ is conceptually equivalent to
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> { if(any(is.na(A)) || !all(A)) stop(...); if(any(is.na(B)) ||
>      >>> >>>> !all(B)) stop(...) }
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> Best, H.
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> --
>      >>> >>>> Hervé Pagès
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> Program in Computational Biology Division of Public Health
>      >>> >>>> Sciences Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 1100 Fairview
>      >>> >>>> Ave. N, M1-B514 P.O. Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109-1024
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> E-mail: hpages at fredhutch.org Phone: (206) 667-5791 Fax: (206)
>      >>> >>>> 667-1319
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>> ______________________________________________
>      >>> >>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__stat.ethz.ch_mailman_listinfo_r-2Ddevel&d=DwIFaQ&c=eRAMFD45gAfqt84VtBcfhQ&r=BK7q3XeAvimeWdGbWY_wJYbW0WYiZvSXAJJKaaPhzWA&m=JwgKhKD2k-9Kedeh6pqu-A8x6UEV0INrcxcSGVGo3Tg&s=f7IKJIhpRNJMC3rZAkuI6-MTdL3GAKSV2wK0boFN5HY&e=
>      >>> >>>>
>      >>> >>>
>      >>> >>
>      >>>
>      >>> > -- Hervé Pagès
>      >>>
>      >>> > Program in Computational Biology Division of Public Health Sciences
>      >>> > Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 1100 Fairview Ave. N,
>      >>> > M1-B514 P.O. Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109-1024
>      >>>
>      >>> > E-mail: hpages at fredhutch.org Phone: (206) 667-5791 Fax: (206)
>      >>> > 667-1319
>      >>>
>      >>> > ______________________________________________
>      >>> > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>      >>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>      >>>
>      >>> ______________________________________________
>      >>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>      >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>      >>
>
>      > ______________________________________________
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>      > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>



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