R devel - Nov 2020 - sprintf, check number of parameters

Dear R developers,

I am wondering if this should raise an error or a warning.
> sprintf('%.f, %.f', 1, 2, 3)
[1] "1, 2"

I am aware that R has ?numbered? sprintf arguments (sprintf('%1$.f', ?),
and in that case, omissing of specific arguments may be intended. But in the
usual syntax, omission of an argument is probably a mistake.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best wishes,

Matthias


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Dear Matthias,

thanks for the suggestion, R-devel now warns on unused arguments by 
format (both numbered and un-numbered). It seems that the new warning is 
useful, often it finds cases when arguments were accidentally passed to 
sprintf but had been meant for a different function.

R allows combining both numbered and un-numbered references in a single 
format, even though it may be better to avoid and POSIX does not allow 
that.

Best
Tomas

On 9/20/20 1:03 PM, Matthias Gondan wrote:
> Dear R developers,
>
> I am wondering if this should raise an error or a warning.
>
>> sprintf('%.f, %.f', 1, 2, 3)
> [1] "1, 2"
>
> I am aware that R has ?numbered? sprintf arguments
(sprintf('%1$.f', ?), and in that case, omissing of specific arguments
may be intended. But in the usual syntax, omission of an argument is probably a
mistake.
>
> Thank you for your consideration.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Matthias
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Dear Tomas,Thank you.Regarding the "unnumbered" arguments, i.e.
sprintf('%f %f', 1, 2, 3). This was the case I wanted to report, here a
warning can be very useful.Regarding the "numbered" arguments, that
is, sprintf('%$1f %$3f', 1, 2, 3). Here, omission of an argument might
be intended, for example, in an application with support for multiple languages.
Therefore, I am wondering if a warning should be raised.Regarding the mixture:
never heard that this works, and I would probably not want to use it...Your work
is much appreciated, thanks again.Best regards,Matthias
-------- Urspr?ngliche Nachricht --------Von: Tomas Kalibera <tomas.kalibera
at gmail.com> Datum: 04.11.20  15:43  (GMT+01:00) An: Matthias Gondan
<matthias-gondan at gmx.de>, r-devel at r-project.org Betreff: Re: [Rd]
sprintf, check number of parameters Dear Matthias,thanks for the suggestion,
R-devel now warns on unused arguments by format (both numbered and un-numbered).
It seems that the new warning is useful, often it finds cases when arguments
were accidentally passed to sprintf but had been meant for a different
function.R allows combining both numbered and un-numbered references in a single
format, even though it may be better to avoid and POSIX does not allow
that.BestTomasOn 9/20/20 1:03 PM, Matthias Gondan wrote:> Dear R
developers,>> I am wondering if this should raise an error or a
warning.>>> sprintf('%.f, %.f', 1, 2, 3)> [1] "1,
2">> I am aware that R has ?numbered? sprintf arguments
(sprintf('%1$.f', ?), and in that case, omissing of specific arguments
may be intended. But in the usual syntax, omission of an argument is probably a
mistake.>> Thank you for your consideration.>> Best wishes,>>
Matthias>>> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]>>
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