R help - Jul 2010 - accessing return variables from a function

Hi,

I am trying to figure out a "short" way to access two values output
from
the sort function.
>x <- c(3,4,3,6,78,3,1,2)
>sort(x, index.return=T)
$x
[1]  1  2  3  3  3  4  6 78

$ix
[1] 7 8 1 3 6 2 4 5


It would be great to do something like this (doesn't work.):

c(y, indexes) <- sort(x, index.return=T)

But that doesn't work.

I CAN grab the output of sort in a variable and then access it twice to
get the values, but that seems wasteful.

Any  ideas?

-N

On Jul 9, 2010, at 5:20 AM, Noah Silverman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to figure out a "short" way to access two values
output
> from
> the sort function.
>
>> x <- c(3,4,3,6,78,3,1,2)
>> sort(x, index.return=T)
> $x
> [1]  1  2  3  3  3  4  6 78
>
> $ix
> [1] 7 8 1 3 6 2 4 5
>
>
> It would be great to do something like this (doesn't work.):
 > yoursort <- function(x) {sx <- sort(x, index.return=T); return( c(sx
$x, sx$ix) )}
 > yoursort(x)
  [1]  1  2  3  3  3  4  6 78  7  8  1  3  6  2  4  5
> c(y, indexes) <- sort(x, index.return=T)
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> I CAN grab the output of sort in a variable and then access it twice  
> to
> get the values, but that seems wasteful.
>
> Any  ideas?
>
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT

On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Noah Silverman <noah at
smartmediacorp.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to figure out a "short" way to access two values
output from
> the sort function.
>
>>x <- c(3,4,3,6,78,3,1,2)
>>sort(x, index.return=T)
> $x
> [1] ?1 ?2 ?3 ?3 ?3 ?4 ?6 78
>
> $ix
> [1] 7 8 1 3 6 2 4 5
>
>
> It would be great to do something like this (doesn't work.):
>
> c(y, indexes) <- sort(x, index.return=T)
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> I CAN grab the output of sort in a variable and then access it twice to
> get the values, but that seems wasteful.
 Care to do a little study to see how wasteful? The difference is
going to be between:

 foo = sort(...)
 repeat loads of times{
   f(foo$x)
   g(foo$ix)
 }

and

 foo = sort(...)
 x=foo$x
 ix = foo$ix
 repeat loads of times{
    f(x)
    g(ix)
  }

  I'd guess that for most applications the difference is less than
something very close to zero.

Barry

Thanks!

-N

On 7/9/10 2:20 AM, Noah Silverman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to figure out a "short" way to access two values
output from
> the sort function.
>
>   
>> x <- c(3,4,3,6,78,3,1,2)
>> sort(x, index.return=T)
>>     
> $x
> [1]  1  2  3  3  3  4  6 78
>
> $ix
> [1] 7 8 1 3 6 2 4 5
>
>
> It would be great to do something like this (doesn't work.):
>
> c(y, indexes) <- sort(x, index.return=T)
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> I CAN grab the output of sort in a variable and then access it twice to
> get the values, but that seems wasteful.
>
> Any  ideas?
>
> -N
>
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