R devel - Jul 2022 - Feature Request: Allow Underscore Separated Numbers

Hello,

After using R for a number of years, and venturing into other languages,
I've noticed the ones with the ability to enter numbers separated by
underscores for readability (like 100000 as 100_000) make life a whole lot
easier, especially when debugging. Is this a feature that could be
implemented in R?

Regards,

-- 
*Devin Marlin*

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Devin,

I cannot say anyone wants to tweak R after the fact to accept numeric items
with underscores as that might impact all kinds of places.

Can I suggest a workaround that allows you to enter your integer (or
floating point which gets truncated) using this:

underint <- function(text) as.integer(gsub("_+", "",
text))

Use a call to that anywhere you want an int like:

result <- underint("1_000_000") + underint("6___6__6_6")
- 6000

results in: 100666

If you want to see the result with underscores, using something like
scales::comma as in

You can also make similar functions that use as.numeric() and as.double()
but note that this allows you to enter data at somewhat greater expense and
as text/strings. Obviously a similar technique can be used with regular
expressions of many kinds to wipe out or replace anything, including commas
with this:

undernumeric <- function(text) as.numeric(gsub("[,_]+",
"", text))

undernumeric("123,456.789_012")
[1] 123456.8

Yes, it truncated it but I am sure any combo of underscores and commas will
be removed. It also truncates the same thing with all numerals and a period.



-----Original Message-----
From: R-devel <r-devel-bounces at r-project.org> On Behalf Of Devin Marlin
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2022 3:54 PM
To: r-devel at r-project.org
Subject: [Rd] Feature Request: Allow Underscore Separated Numbers

Hello,

After using R for a number of years, and venturing into other languages,
I've noticed the ones with the ability to enter numbers separated by
underscores for readability (like 100000 as 100_000) make life a whole lot
easier, especially when debugging. Is this a feature that could be
implemented in R?

Regards,

--
*Devin Marlin*

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

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On 14/07/2022 3:53 p.m., Devin Marlin wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> After using R for a number of years, and venturing into other languages,
> I've noticed the ones with the ability to enter numbers separated by
> underscores for readability (like 100000 as 100_000) make life a whole lot
> easier, especially when debugging. Is this a feature that could be
> implemented in R?
I think this could be done, but I doubt if anyone who could make the 
change would think the arbitrary decisions and added complexity in the 
parser was worth the effort.  (Would it be a thousands separator, or 
could it separate any number of digits?  Could a number start with an 
underscore or end with one?)

Instead, I'd suggest creating variables with meaningful names to hold 
big numeric constants, e.g.

     AU_in_km <- 149598262  # or 149.598262e6

     Jupiter <- 5.2 * AU_in_km

rather than

     Jupiter <- 5.2 * 149_598_262

Duncan Murdoch