[R] problem with do.call

[Douglas Bates]

Ernesto Jardim <ernesto at ipimar.pt> writes:

> Hi
> 
> This was not my understanding. I thougth that if you can use functions
> like apply and similar instead of for loops your code will be faster.
> Basicly relying on these functions code which is (should be) optimized
> for speed.
> 
> If what you're saying is true then using functions like apply is a
> matter of simplicity and not speeding up the code. 
> 
> Is this correct ?

Yes.

If you examine the apply function you will see that the bulk of the
work is done in a loop

    if (length(d.call) < 2) {
        if (length(dn.call)) 
            dimnames(newX) <- c(dn.call, list(NULL))
        for (i in 1:d2) ans[[i]] <- FUN(newX[, i], ...)
    }
    else for (i in 1:d2) ans[[i]] <- FUN(array(newX[, i], d.call, 
        dn.call), ...)

In their book "S Programming" (Springer, 2000) Venables and Ripley
discuss general strategies for writing R functions and for making them
faster.  One general principle is to profile the code before
implementing changes.  The manual "Writing R Extensions" has a section
on "Profiling R code" which is highly recommended.
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