[R] Suggested mod to interaction()

[(Ted Harding)]

May I suggest a slight modification to interaction()?

It's purely cosmetic, but I found it convenient.
It would have no effect on standard use of the function.

In the code below, the change consists of adding an
argument 'sep' (default = ".", which is the standard
behaviour), and changing the line

        else as.vector(outer(l, lvs, paste, sep = "."))
to
        else as.vector(outer(l, lvs, paste, sep = sep))

-----------------------------------------------------
interaction<-function (..., drop = FALSE, sep=".")
{
    args <- list(...)
    narg <- length(args)
    if (narg == 1 && is.list(args[[1]])) {
        args <- args[[1]]
        narg <- length(args)
    }
    ans <- 0
    lvs <- NULL
    for (i in narg:1) {
        f <- args[[i]]
        if (!is.factor(f)) 
            f <- factor(f)
        l <- levels(f)
        ans <- ans * length(l) + as.integer(f) - 1
        lvs <- if (i == narg) 
            l
        else as.vector(outer(l, lvs, paste, sep = sep))
    }
    ans <- ans + 1
    if (drop) {
        f <- unique(ans[!is.na(ans)])
        ans <- match(ans, f)
        lvs <- lvs[f]
    }
    ans <- as.integer(ans)
    levels(ans) <- lvs
    class(ans) <- "factor"
    ans
}
-----------------------------------------------------

Best wishes to all,
Ted.



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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972
Date: 16-Jun-04                                       Time: 15:02:33
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