[R] Evaluation of variable assigned to a function name

Uwe Ligges ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de
Mon Jan 10 14:48:04 CET 2011



On 10.01.2011 14:39, carol white wrote:
> In fact, what the function is returning is the most important. So knowing that
> the parameters and the number of parameters of my.func defined by the user could
> be different from one definition to another, how to use what my.func returns in
> other functions? Moreover, if the function is defined by the user in an R
> session, it is then defined globally. In this case, does it need to be passed as
> a parameter? Note that my.func defined by me is loaded before.

It depends.

1. The output of a function can always be wrapped in a list.
2. You should always pass objects that you want to use in another 
environment unless you really know what you are doing - and reading does 
not suggest you are too sure about it.
3. In this case, if your package has a Namespace, your own function 
rather than a user generated one in the .GlobalEnv will be found.

Note that defining stuff in .GlobalEnv and relying on the fact that this 
version is found by another function would imply you really have to get 
it from the specific environment.

Best,
Uwe




> Carol
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Uwe Ligges<ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
> To: carol white<wht_crl at yahoo.com>
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Sent: Mon, January 10, 2011 2:11:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [R] Evaluation of variable assigned to a function name
>
> Wel, just let the user give the function in form of an argument, say
> "foo", and use your code so that
>
>
> bar<- function(x, ....., foo){
>      if(missing(foo)) foo<- Namespace::my.func
>      .....
> }
>
>
> but perhaps I misunderstood your question.
>
> Uwe Ligges
>
>
>
> On 10.01.2011 13:47, carol white wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I have defined a function (my.func) which is used as parameter (f) of another
>> function. As I want to give the user the possibility to define his own
> function
>> instead of my.func, how can I find out if in other functions, the parameter f
>> has the my.func value (if the user has defined a new function or not)?
>>
>>
>> Moreover, I think I should impose to the user to use another function name
> than
>> my.func for this (?). Or a boolean variable is better to be used to indicate
> if
>> my function (my.func) or user-defined function is used?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Carol
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
>
>



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