[R] Existence of formal arguments.

[Rolf Turner]

On 6/06/2008, at 12:57 PM, Erik Iverson wrote:

> Note the difference between
>
> test <- function(a) {
>   exists("a", mode = "symbol")
> }
> test()
>
> and
>
> test2 <- function(a) {
>   exists("a", mode = "numeric") #say
> }
> test2()
>
> and then note that the default mode argument to exists is "any".


Basically, I think, you're saying that a formal argument exists ``as  
a symbol''
(even if the object named doesn't exist) and that's why exists("a")  
returns TRUE
in these circumstances.

I'm still a bit puzzled, but:

Although test() gives TRUE and test2() gives FALSE,
both test(a) and test2(a) throw an error:

Error in exists("a", mode = "symbol") : object "a" not found

and

Error in exists("a", mode = "numeric") : object "a" not found

whereas if I don't say anything about the mode, as in

test3 <- function(a) {
   exists("a")
}

then test3(a) evaluates to TRUE (even though there is no ``a''  
anywhere in
the search path.

Also with a redundant specification of the mode, as in

test4 <- function(a){
   exists("a",mode="any")
}

one gets test4(a) to be TRUE (no error thrown).

I don't see the pattern.  But it's probably not worth wasting time on.

		cheers,

			Rolf Turner

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