R devel - Nov 2006 - unwarranted warning from hist.default (PR#9356)

> x = rnorm(100)
> b = seq(min(x) - 1, max(x) + 1, length = 11)
> b
 [1] -3.4038769 -2.7451072 -2.0863375 -1.4275678 -0.7687980 -0.1100283
 [7]  0.5487414  1.2075111  1.8662808  2.5250506 
3.1838203
>
> invisible(hist(x, breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot = FALSE))
Warning message:
argument 'include.lowest' is not made use of in: hist.default(x,
breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot = FALSE)


I don't think a warning is appropriate, since ?hist says:

include.lowest: logical; if 'TRUE', an 'x[i]' equal to the
'breaks'
          value will be included in the first (or last, for 'right          
FALSE') bar.  This will be ignored (with a warning) unless
          'breaks' is a vector.

and in this case 'breaks' does qualify as a "vector" by my
understanding.

Note that the warning goes away with 'plot=TRUE'. This suggests that
this might have something to do with this vaguely worded entry in the
NEWS for R 2.4.0:

   o   hist(*, plot = FALSE) now warns about unused arguments.

Neither the help page nor the NEWS file indicates what arguments are
considered 'unused' when 'plot = FALSE', but either possibility
---
(1) include.lowest is actually unused and (2) it is used and the
warning is wrong --- is a bug.
> sessionInfo()
R version 2.4.0 Patched (2006-11-03 r39777)
i486-pc-linux-gnu

locale:
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8;LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8;LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
[1] "methods"   "stats"     "graphics" 
"grDevices" "utils"     "datasets"
[7] "base"

-Deepayan

deepayan.sarkar at gmail.com writes:
> > x = rnorm(100)
> > b = seq(min(x) - 1, max(x) + 1, length = 11)
> > b
>  [1] -3.4038769 -2.7451072 -2.0863375 -1.4275678 -0.7687980 -0.1100283
>  [7]  0.5487414  1.2075111  1.8662808  2.5250506  3.1838203
> >
> > invisible(hist(x, breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot = FALSE))
> Warning message:
> argument 'include.lowest' is not made use of in: hist.default(x,
> breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot = FALSE)
> 
> 
> I don't think a warning is appropriate, since ?hist says:
> 
> include.lowest: logical; if 'TRUE', an 'x[i]' equal to the
'breaks'
>           value will be included in the first (or last, for 'right >
FALSE') bar.  This will be ignored (with a warning) unless
>           'breaks' is a vector.
> 
> and in this case 'breaks' does qualify as a "vector" by
my understanding.
> 
> Note that the warning goes away with 'plot=TRUE'. This suggests
that
> this might have something to do with this vaguely worded entry in the
> NEWS for R 2.4.0:
> 
>    o   hist(*, plot = FALSE) now warns about unused arguments.
> 
> Neither the help page nor the NEWS file indicates what arguments are
> considered 'unused' when 'plot = FALSE', but either
possibility ---
> (1) include.lowest is actually unused and (2) it is used and the
> warning is wrong --- is a bug.
As I read the code, the purpose is to warn people if they supply plot
arguments (density, xlim, ylim,....) while plot=FALSE. There's a stop
list coded by 

        nf <- nf[is.na(match(nf, c("x", "breaks",
"freq", "nclass",
            "plot", "probability")))]

and I think the problem is just that "include.lowest" should have been
on the list.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             ?ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark          Ph:  (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)                  FAX: (+45) 35327907

On 10 Nov 2006 23:39:14 +0100, Peter Dalgaard <p.dalgaard at
biostat.ku.dk> wrote:
> deepayan.sarkar at gmail.com writes:
>
> > > x = rnorm(100)
> > > b = seq(min(x) - 1, max(x) + 1, length = 11)
> > > b
> >  [1] -3.4038769 -2.7451072 -2.0863375 -1.4275678 -0.7687980 -0.1100283
> >  [7]  0.5487414  1.2075111  1.8662808  2.5250506  3.1838203
> > >
> > > invisible(hist(x, breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot =
FALSE))
> > Warning message:
> > argument 'include.lowest' is not made use of in:
hist.default(x,
> > breaks = b, include.lowest = TRUE, plot = FALSE)
> >
> >
> > I don't think a warning is appropriate, since ?hist says:
> >
> > include.lowest: logical; if 'TRUE', an 'x[i]' equal to
the 'breaks'
> >           value will be included in the first (or last, for 'right
> >           FALSE') bar.  This will be ignored (with a warning)
unless
> >           'breaks' is a vector.
> >
> > and in this case 'breaks' does qualify as a "vector"
by my understanding.
> >
> > Note that the warning goes away with 'plot=TRUE'. This
suggests that
> > this might have something to do with this vaguely worded entry in the
> > NEWS for R 2.4.0:
> >
> >    o   hist(*, plot = FALSE) now warns about unused arguments.
> >
> > Neither the help page nor the NEWS file indicates what arguments are
> > considered 'unused' when 'plot = FALSE', but either
possibility ---
> > (1) include.lowest is actually unused and (2) it is used and the
> > warning is wrong --- is a bug.
>
> As I read the code, the purpose is to warn people if they supply plot
> arguments (density, xlim, ylim,....) while plot=FALSE.
That's not exactly what the NEWS entry says though.
> There's a stop
> list coded by
>
>         nf <- nf[is.na(match(nf, c("x", "breaks",
"freq", "nclass",
>             "plot", "probability")))]
>
> and I think the problem is just that "include.lowest" should have
been
> on the list.
Yes. And while you are at it, my suggestion would be to either take
'probability' and 'freq' off that list (which would make the
NEWS
entry slightly more true) and/or clarify the intent of the warning.
The current help page is silent about the warnings when 'plot FALSE',
and I don't think that's a good thing. It's not exactly a bug,
so I didn't file a bug report, but I did send a message to r-devel
about it a while back.

-Deepayan

> There's a stop
 > list coded by
 >
 >         nf <- nf[is.na(match(nf, c("x", "breaks",
"freq", "nclass",
 >             "plot", "probability")))]
 >
 > and I think the problem is just that "include.lowest" should
have
been
 > on the list.

I think that "right" should have been on the list, too.
Refer to the following examples.
The argument "right"fulfills the role.

 > set.seed(12345)
 > x <- rbinom(1000, 50, 0.3)

 > hist(x, right=FALSE, plot=FALSE)$counts
[1]   5  36  81 182 238 234 140  63  21
Warning message:
argument ?eright?f is not made use of in: hist.default(x, right =  
FALSE, plot = FALSE)

 > hist(x, right=TRUE, plot=FALSE)$counts
[1]  22  51 131 218 243 197  94  35   9
Warning message:
argument ?eright?f is not made use of in: hist.default(x, right =  
TRUE, plot = FALSE)

 > hist(x, plot=FALSE)$counts
[1]  22  51 131 218 243 197  94  35   9