R devel - Feb 2009 - 'unique' error message is printed despite silent=TRUE (PR#13547)

In 2.8.0/Windows Vista:

When 'unique' gives a type error message, it prints out even if errors
are being caught:
> try(unique(quote(hello)),silent=TRUE)
hello

This comes from the .Internal unique routine:
> try(.Internal(unique(quote(hello),NULL,NULL)),silent=TRUE)
hello

I guess it is using the internal equivalent of print rather than the
internal equivalent of stop.

           -s

On 22/02/2009 2:15 PM, macrakis at alum.mit.edu wrote:
> In 2.8.0/Windows Vista:
> 
> When 'unique' gives a type error message, it prints out even if
errors
> are being caught:
> 
>> try(unique(quote(hello)),silent=TRUE)
> hello
> 
> This comes from the .Internal unique routine:
> 
>> try(.Internal(unique(quote(hello),NULL,NULL)),silent=TRUE)
> hello
> 
> I guess it is using the internal equivalent of print rather than the
> internal equivalent of stop.
Still there in R-devel; I'll see if I can fix it.

Duncan Murdoch

macrakis at alum.mit.edu wrote:
> In 2.8.0/Windows Vista:
>
> When 'unique' gives a type error message, it prints out even if
errors
> are being caught:
>
>   
>> try(unique(quote(hello)),silent=TRUE)
>>     
> hello
>
> This comes from the .Internal unique routine:
>
>   
>> try(.Internal(unique(quote(hello),NULL,NULL)),silent=TRUE)
>>     
> hello
>
> I guess it is using the internal equivalent of print rather than the
> internal equivalent of stop.
>
>   
line 454+ in src/main/unique.c:

    if (!isVector(x)) {
    PrintValue(x);
    error(_("%s() applies only to vectors"),
          (PRIMVAL(op) == 0 ? "duplicated" : "unique"));
    }

in your example, quote() produces a non-vector, hence the output before
the error message.

vQ

macrakis at alum.mit.edu wrote:
> In 2.8.0/Windows Vista:
> 
> When 'unique' gives a type error message, it prints out even if
errors
> are being caught:
> 
>> try(unique(quote(hello)),silent=TRUE)
> hello
> 
> This comes from the .Internal unique routine:
> 
>> try(.Internal(unique(quote(hello),NULL,NULL)),silent=TRUE)
> hello
> 
> I guess it is using the internal equivalent of print rather than the
> internal equivalent of stop.
> 
silent=TRUE is a red herring (this has nothing to do with try()).

However, inside do_duplicated (unique.c) we have

     if (!isVector(x)) {
	PrintValue(x);
	error(_("%s() applies only to vectors"),
	      (PRIMVAL(op) == 0 ? "duplicated" : "unique"));
     }

This is due to

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r32306 | ripley | 2004-12-23 22:06:27 +0100 (Thu, 23 Dec 2004) | 2 lines

Apparently unique/duplicated are supposed to work on NULL, despite their 
help!

...which makes little sense to explain the PrintValue(x). I suspect this 
is a debugging printout that was inadvertently left in.


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

On 22/02/2009 4:08 PM, Wacek Kusnierczyk wrote:
> Peter Dalgaard wrote:
>> macrakis at alum.mit.edu wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
>>>> try(.Internal(unique(quote(hello),NULL,NULL)),silent=TRUE)
>>> hello
>>>
>>> I guess it is using the internal equivalent of print rather than
the
>>> internal equivalent of stop.
>>>
>> silent=TRUE is a red herring (this has nothing to do with try()).
>>
>> However, inside do_duplicated (unique.c) we have
>>
>>     if (!isVector(x)) {
>>     PrintValue(x);
>>     error(_("%s() applies only to vectors"),
>>           (PRIMVAL(op) == 0 ? "duplicated" :
"unique"));
>>     }
>>
>> This is due to
>>
>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> r32306 | ripley | 2004-12-23 22:06:27 +0100 (Thu, 23 Dec 2004) | 2
lines
>>
>> Apparently unique/duplicated are supposed to work on NULL, despite
>> their help!
>>
>> ...which makes little sense to explain the PrintValue(x). I suspect
>> this is a debugging printout that was inadvertently left in.
> 
> hmm, why wouldn't you use something like
> 
>     DEBUG(x)
> 
> with DEBUG being a macro defined so that it's replacement is void
unless
> a specific flag or environment variable is set specifically for the
> purpose of debugging?  you would then avoid confusing users' code just
> because one PrintValue has been inadvertently left in the sources.
But then we'd confuse developers, who would see a huge dump of messages
from every other debugging session, when they just wanted to see their 
own, and who would be forced to wade through leftover never-used 
DEBUG(x) calls in code when they were reading the source.

This is not a common error:  as far as I know, there are no other 
unintentional PrintValue calls anywhere in the source.  So I think the 
current system (just take them out before committing) is working.

Duncan Murdoch