R devel - May 2009 - Improve aggregate.default ...?

Hi,

I find it a bit annoying that aggregate.default forces the returned
object to loose the 'name' of the variable aggregated, replacing it with
'x'.

A brief example:
> dat <- data.frame(A = runif(100), B = rnorm(100), 
+                   Group = gl(4, 25))
> with(dat, aggregate(A, by = list(Group = Group), FUN = mean))
  Group         x
1     1 0.6523228
2     2 0.4544317
3     3 0.4619624
4     4 0.4703156

This arises because aggregate default has:

function (x, ...) 
{
    if (is.ts(x)) 
        aggregate.ts(as.ts(x), ...)
    else aggregate.data.frame(as.data.frame(x), ...)
}

which recasts x as a data frame, but doesn't make any effort to supply a
name. Can we do a better job of supplying a useful name?

My first attempt is:

aggregate.default <- function(x, ...) {
    if (is.ts(x))
        aggregate.ts(as.ts(x), ...)
    else {
        nam <- deparse(substitute(x))
        x <- as.data.frame(x)
        names(x) <- nam
        aggregate.data.frame(x, ...)
    }
}

Which works for the brief example above:
> with(dat, aggregate(A, by = list(Group = Group), FUN = mean))
  Group         A
1     1 0.4269715
2     2 0.5479352
3     3 0.5091543
4     4 0.4926412

However, it fails make check-all because examples have relied on
returned object having 'x'. I also note that this might have the
annoying side effect of producing odd names if we use the following
incantation:
> res <- aggregate(dat$A, by = list(Group = dat$Group), FUN = mean)
> str(res)
'data.frame':	4 obs. of  2 variables:
 $ Group: Factor w/ 4 levels
"1","2","3","4": 1 2 3 4
 $ dat$A: num  0.427 0.548 0.509 0.493
> res$dat$A
Error in res$dat$A : $ operator is invalid for atomic
vectors
> res$`dat$A`
[1] 0.4269715 0.5479352 0.5091543 0.4926412

Is there a way of coming up with a better way to name the aggregated
variable? Would a change of this kind be something R Core would consider
making to aggregate.default if a good solution is found?

Thanks in advance,

G
-- 
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
 Dr. Gavin Simpson             [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522
 ECRC, UCL Geography,          [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565
 Pearson Building,             [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
 Gower Street, London          [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
 UK. WC1E 6BT.                 [w] http://www.freshwaters.org.uk
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%

Try this:
> aggregate(dat["A"], dat["Group"], mean)
  Group         A
1     1 0.4944810
2     2 0.4765412
3     3 0.4521068
4     4 0.4989000

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 8:14 AM, Gavin Simpson <gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I find it a bit annoying that aggregate.default forces the returned
> object to loose the 'name' of the variable aggregated, replacing it
with
> 'x'.
>
> A brief example:
>
>> dat <- data.frame(A = runif(100), B = rnorm(100),
> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Group = gl(4, 25))
>> with(dat, aggregate(A, by = list(Group = Group), FUN = mean))
> ?Group ? ? ? ? x
> 1 ? ? 1 0.6523228
> 2 ? ? 2 0.4544317
> 3 ? ? 3 0.4619624
> 4 ? ? 4 0.4703156
>
> This arises because aggregate default has:
>
> function (x, ...)
> {
> ? ?if (is.ts(x))
> ? ? ? ?aggregate.ts(as.ts(x), ...)
> ? ?else aggregate.data.frame(as.data.frame(x), ...)
> }
>
> which recasts x as a data frame, but doesn't make any effort to supply
a
> name. Can we do a better job of supplying a useful name?
>
> My first attempt is:
>
> aggregate.default <- function(x, ...) {
> ? ?if (is.ts(x))
> ? ? ? ?aggregate.ts(as.ts(x), ...)
> ? ?else {
> ? ? ? ?nam <- deparse(substitute(x))
> ? ? ? ?x <- as.data.frame(x)
> ? ? ? ?names(x) <- nam
> ? ? ? ?aggregate.data.frame(x, ...)
> ? ?}
> }
>
> Which works for the brief example above:
>
>> with(dat, aggregate(A, by = list(Group = Group), FUN = mean))
> ?Group ? ? ? ? A
> 1 ? ? 1 0.4269715
> 2 ? ? 2 0.5479352
> 3 ? ? 3 0.5091543
> 4 ? ? 4 0.4926412
>
> However, it fails make check-all because examples have relied on
> returned object having 'x'. I also note that this might have the
> annoying side effect of producing odd names if we use the following
> incantation:
>
>> res <- aggregate(dat$A, by = list(Group = dat$Group), FUN = mean)
>> str(res)
> 'data.frame': ? 4 obs. of ?2 variables:
> ?$ Group: Factor w/ 4 levels
"1","2","3","4": 1 2 3 4
> ?$ dat$A: num ?0.427 0.548 0.509 0.493
>> res$dat$A
> Error in res$dat$A : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors
>> res$`dat$A`
> [1] 0.4269715 0.5479352 0.5091543 0.4926412
>
> Is there a way of coming up with a better way to name the aggregated
> variable? Would a change of this kind be something R Core would consider
> making to aggregate.default if a good solution is found?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> G
> --
> %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
> ?Dr. Gavin Simpson ? ? ? ? ? ? [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522
> ?ECRC, UCL Geography, ? ? ? ? ?[f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565
> ?Pearson Building, ? ? ? ? ? ? [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
> ?Gower Street, London ? ? ? ? ?[w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
> ?UK. WC1E 6BT. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [w] http://www.freshwaters.org.uk
> %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
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>