R devel - Apr 2014 - type.convert and doubles

Hi All,

I see this in the NEWS for R 3.1.0: 

type.convert() (and hence by default read.table()) returns a character vector or
factor when representing a numeric input as a double would lose accuracy.
Similarly for complex inputs.

This behavior seems likely to surprise users.  Would it be possible to issue a
warning when this occurs?

Aside: I’m very happy to see the new ’s’ and ‘f’ browser (debugger) commands!

-Greg
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Greg,

On Apr 11, 2014, at 11:50 AM, Gregory R. Warnes <greg at warnes.net>
wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I see this in the NEWS for R 3.1.0: 
> 
> type.convert() (and hence by default read.table()) returns a character
vector or factor when representing a numeric input as a double would lose
accuracy. Similarly for complex inputs.
> 
> This behavior seems likely to surprise users.
Can you elaborate why that would be surprising? It is consistent with the
intention of type.convert() to determine the correct type to represent the value
- it has always used character/factor as a fallback where native type
doesn't match. It has never issued any warning in that case historically, so
IMHO it would be rather surprising if it did now?

Cheers,
Simon

>  Would it be possible to issue a warning when this occurs?
> 
> Aside: I?m very happy to see the new ?s? and ?f? browser (debugger)
commands!
> 
> -Greg
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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