R help - Jun 2021 - interactively getting alist of functions for a given package?

hi.

at the R prompt, i often hit, e.g., "data.table::<TAB>", to try
to find
a routine in a give package.

however, some packages have a *lot* of functions (i'm looking at *you*,
ggplot2...), so if i know the routine name starts with, e.g., "set", i
can filter the returned list of routines by typing
"data.table::set<TAB>" to get a list of completions.

but, what if i know the name *contains*, but doesn't start with,
"set"?

is there an obvious way to find this?  something like the unix-y
: ls /bin | grep -i "set"
?

cheers, Greg

?ls  and note the "pattern" argument.

e.g.

ls("package:base", pat =".*set.*")

Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and
sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )


On Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 5:38 AM Greg Minshall <minshall at umich.edu>
wrote:
> hi.
>
> at the R prompt, i often hit, e.g., "data.table::<TAB>", to
try to find
> a routine in a give package.
>
> however, some packages have a *lot* of functions (i'm looking at *you*,
> ggplot2...), so if i know the routine name starts with, e.g.,
"set", i
> can filter the returned list of routines by typing
> "data.table::set<TAB>" to get a list of completions.
>
> but, what if i know the name *contains*, but doesn't start with,
"set"?
>
> is there an obvious way to find this?  something like the unix-y
> : ls /bin | grep -i "set"
> ?
>
> cheers, Greg
>
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On 23/06/2021 8:37 a.m., Greg Minshall wrote:
> hi.
> 
> at the R prompt, i often hit, e.g., "data.table::<TAB>", to
try to find
> a routine in a give package.
> 
> however, some packages have a *lot* of functions (i'm looking at *you*,
> ggplot2...), so if i know the routine name starts with, e.g.,
"set", i
> can filter the returned list of routines by typing
> "data.table::set<TAB>" to get a list of completions.
> 
> but, what if i know the name *contains*, but doesn't start with,
"set"?
> 
> is there an obvious way to find this?  something like the unix-y
> : ls /bin | grep -i "set"
Bert gave you an answer that depends on ls().  Whether there's something 
like "set<TAB>" that can return "asset" probably
depends on your front
end, and may be customizable using the facilities described in ?rcompgen.

Duncan Murdoch

Here's something which is perhaps a bit more sophisticated than what's 
been offered already.

Here's a function which classifies and returns all of the objects in the 
namespace of a package.

There are three advantages to this approach over something like 
ls("package:ggplot2").

1) You don't need to have the library loaded to be able to see the 
objects in the namespace (though it must be installed of course).
2) ls("package:ggplot2") does not distinguish between the types of 
objects, so you'll get things like "diamonds" coming out of it
with no
indication that it's a data object.
3) With the namespace approach you will also get the internal functions 
and S3 methods in the namespace.

     package_objects <- function(pkg, pattern = "", only_functions
=
FALSE) {
       classify <- function(x, ns, all) {
         obj <- get(x, envir = ns)
         if (is.null(obj) || is.atomic(obj) && !is.object(obj)) {
           "values"
         } else {
           mode(obj)
         }
       }
       pkg <- as.character(substitute(pkg))
       ns <- asNamespace(pkg)
       ns_names <- ls(ns, all.names = TRUE, pattern = pattern)
       type <- sapply(ns_names, classify, ns = ns)
       if (only_functions) type[type != "function"] <- NA
       split(ns_names, type)
     }

     str(package_objects(ggplot2)) # All objects
     #> List of 4
     #>  $ environment: chr [1:121] ".__NAMESPACE__." 
".__S3MethodsTable__." "AxisSecondary" "Coord" ...
     #>  $ function   : chr [1:859] "$.ggproto"
"$.ggproto_parent"
"$<-.uneval" "%||%" ...
     #>  $ list       : chr [1:3] ".element_tree"
".store" ".zeroGrob"
     #>  $ values     : chr [1:13] ".__global__"
".all_aesthetics"
".base_to_ggplot" ".packageName" ...

     str(package_objects(ggplot2, "", TRUE)) # All functions
     #> List of 1
     #>  $ function: chr [1:859] "$.ggproto"
"$.ggproto_parent"
"$<-.uneval" "%||%" ...

     package_objects(ggplot2, "^geom", TRUE) # Function starts with
"geom"
     #> $`function`
     #>  [1] "geom_abline"            "geom_area" 
"geom_bar"
     #>  [4] "geom_bin2d"             "geom_blank" 
"geom_boxplot"
     #>  [7] "geom_col"               "geom_column" 
"geom_contour"
     #> [10] "geom_contour_filled"    "geom_count" 
"geom_crossbar"
     #> [13] "geom_curve"             "geom_density" 
"geom_density_2d"
     #> [16] "geom_density_2d_filled" "geom_density2d" 
"geom_density2d_filled"
     #> [19] "geom_dotplot"           "geom_errorbar" 
"geom_errorbarh"
     #> [22] "geom_freqpoly"          "geom_function" 
"geom_hex"
     #> [25] "geom_histogram"         "geom_hline" 
"geom_jitter"
     #> [28] "geom_label"             "geom_line" 
"geom_linerange"
     #> [31] "geom_map"               "geom_path" 
"geom_point"
     #> [34] "geom_pointrange"        "geom_polygon"     
"geom_qq"

     #> [37] "geom_qq_line"           "geom_quantile" 
"geom_raster"
     #> [40] "geom_rect"              "geom_ribbon" 
"geom_rug"
     #> [43] "geom_segment"           "geom_sf" 
"geom_sf_label"
     #> [46] "geom_sf_text"           "geom_smooth" 
"geom_spoke"
     #> [49] "geom_step"              "geom_text" 
"geom_tile"
     #> [52] "geom_violin"            "geom_vline"

     package_objects(ggplot2, "geom", TRUE) # Function contains
"geom"
     #> $`function`
     #>  [1] "geom_abline"            "geom_area" 
"geom_bar"
     #>  [4] "geom_bin2d"             "geom_blank" 
"geom_boxplot"
     #>  [7] "geom_col"               "geom_column" 
"geom_contour"
     #> [10] "geom_contour_filled"    "geom_count" 
"geom_crossbar"
     #> [13] "geom_curve"             "geom_density" 
"geom_density_2d"
     #> [16] "geom_density_2d_filled" "geom_density2d" 
"geom_density2d_filled"
     #> [19] "geom_dotplot"           "geom_errorbar" 
"geom_errorbarh"
     #> [22] "geom_freqpoly"          "geom_function" 
"geom_hex"
     #> [25] "geom_histogram"         "geom_hline" 
"geom_jitter"
     #> [28] "geom_label"             "geom_line" 
"geom_linerange"
     #> [31] "geom_map"               "geom_path" 
"geom_point"
     #> [34] "geom_pointrange"        "geom_polygon"     
"geom_qq"

     #> [37] "geom_qq_line"           "geom_quantile" 
"geom_raster"
     #> [40] "geom_rect"              "geom_ribbon" 
"geom_rug"
     #> [43] "geom_segment"           "geom_sf" 
"geom_sf_label"
     #> [46] "geom_sf_text"           "geom_smooth" 
"geom_spoke"
     #> [49] "geom_step"              "geom_text" 
"geom_tile"
     #> [52] "geom_violin"            "geom_vline" 
"guide_geom"
     #> [55] "guide_geom.axis"        "guide_geom.bins" 
"guide_geom.colorbar"
     #> [58] "guide_geom.guide_none"  "guide_geom.legend"
"guides_geom"
     #> [61] "update_geom_defaults"

     # Has "geom" or "Geom" anywhere in the object name
     package_objects(ggplot2, "[gG]eom")
     #> $environment
     #>  [1] "Geom"                "GeomAbline" 
"GeomAnnotationMap"
     #>  [4] "GeomArea"            "GeomBar"            
"GeomBlank"

     #>  [7] "GeomBoxplot"         "GeomCol"            
"GeomContour"

     #> [10] "GeomContourFilled"   "GeomCrossbar"       
"GeomCurve"

     #> [13] "GeomCustomAnn"       "GeomDensity"        
"GeomDensity2d"

     #> [16] "GeomDensity2dFilled" "GeomDotplot"        
"GeomErrorbar"

     #> [19] "GeomErrorbarh"       "GeomFunction"       
"GeomHex"

     #> [22] "GeomHline"           "GeomLabel"          
"GeomLine"

     #> [25] "GeomLinerange"       "GeomLogticks"       
"GeomMap"

     #> [28] "GeomPath"            "GeomPoint" 
"GeomPointrange"
     #> [31] "GeomPolygon"         "GeomQuantile"       
"GeomRaster"

     #> [34] "GeomRasterAnn"       "GeomRect"           
"GeomRibbon"

     #> [37] "GeomRug"             "GeomSegment"        
"GeomSf"

     #> [40] "GeomSmooth"          "GeomSpoke"          
"GeomStep"

     #> [43] "GeomText"            "GeomTile"           
"GeomViolin"

     #> [46] "GeomVline"
     #>
     #> $`function`
     #>  [1] "geom_abline"            "geom_area" 
"geom_bar"
     #>  [4] "geom_bin2d"             "geom_blank" 
"geom_boxplot"
     #>  [7] "geom_col"               "geom_column" 
"geom_contour"
     #> [10] "geom_contour_filled"    "geom_count" 
"geom_crossbar"
     #> [13] "geom_curve"             "geom_density" 
"geom_density_2d"
     #> [16] "geom_density_2d_filled" "geom_density2d" 
"geom_density2d_filled"
     #> [19] "geom_dotplot"           "geom_errorbar" 
"geom_errorbarh"
     #> [22] "geom_freqpoly"          "geom_function" 
"geom_hex"
     #> [25] "geom_histogram"         "geom_hline" 
"geom_jitter"
     #> [28] "geom_label"             "geom_line" 
"geom_linerange"
     #> [31] "geom_map"               "geom_path" 
"geom_point"
     #> [34] "geom_pointrange"        "geom_polygon"     
"geom_qq"

     #> [37] "geom_qq_line"           "geom_quantile" 
"geom_raster"
     #> [40] "geom_rect"              "geom_ribbon" 
"geom_rug"
     #> [43] "geom_segment"           "geom_sf" 
"geom_sf_label"
     #> [46] "geom_sf_text"           "geom_smooth" 
"geom_spoke"
     #> [49] "geom_step"              "geom_text" 
"geom_tile"
     #> [52] "geom_violin"            "geom_vline" 
"guide_geom"
     #> [55] "guide_geom.axis"        "guide_geom.bins" 
"guide_geom.colorbar"
     #> [58] "guide_geom.guide_none"  "guide_geom.legend"
"guides_geom"
     #> [61] "update_geom_defaults"

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