[R] get() versus getAnywhere()

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 4/16/2009 9:52 AM, Benjamin Tyner wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Using R 2.8.1. I have list object called "AuxData". Inside a browser(),
> 
>    get("AuxData")
> 
> succeeds, while
> 
>    getAnywhere("AuxData")
> 
> fails with the error "no object named âAuxDataâ was found". I'm
> curious to know if this could be a bug. If yes, I'll try to come up
> with a reproducible example.

It's not a bug.  getAnywhere doesn't really mean "anywhere", it means 
"visible on the search path, registered as an S3 method or in a name 
space but not exported."  On the other hand, the browser will show you 
the local evaluation frame.  So I'd expect the browser to be able to see 
x below, but getAnywhere wouldn't find it, because it's not in one of 
the places listed above.

f <- function(x) {
   browser()
   getAnywhere("x")
}

f(1)