R help - Sep 2006 - "unvector" ?

Hi ev'rybody,

is there a way to pass a vector to a function
expecting separate arguments?
more specifically, I have a character vector, say u
and I want a single string, but
>paste(u) 
doesn't work, so I would like something like 
>paste(unvector(u)).
I am interested in a solution to the general problem too,
as the only one I found is maintaining two versions of the
functions I write.

Eric Elguero
GEMI-UMR 2724 IRD-CNRS,
Equipe "Evolution des Systemes Symbiotiques"
911 avenue Agropolis, BP 64501,
34394 Montpellier cedex 5 FRANCE

Try:
> paste(letters, collapse=' ')
Or
> do.call('paste',as.list(letters)) 

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at intermountainmail.org
(801) 408-8111
 

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Eric Elguero
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 9:08 AM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] "unvector" ?

Hi ev'rybody,

is there a way to pass a vector to a function expecting separate
arguments?
more specifically, I have a character vector, say u and I want a single
string, but
>paste(u)
doesn't work, so I would like something like 
>paste(unvector(u)).
I am interested in a solution to the general problem too, as the only
one I found is maintaining two versions of the functions I write.

Eric Elguero
GEMI-UMR 2724 IRD-CNRS,
Equipe "Evolution des Systemes Symbiotiques"
911 avenue Agropolis, BP 64501,
34394 Montpellier cedex 5 FRANCE

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Eric Elguero wrote:
> is there a way to pass a vector to a function
> expecting separate arguments?
	In general you can probably do something using

		do.call(FUN,as.list(v))

	where ``v'' is your vector.
> more specifically, I have a character vector, say u
> and I want a single string, but
> >paste(u) 
> doesn't work
	Yes it does if you do it right.  Read the help
	on paste().  (Hint:  There's an argument ``collapse''.)
>               so I would like something like 
> >paste(unvector(u)).
> 
> I am interested in a solution to the general problem too,
> as the only one I found is maintaining two versions of the
> functions I write.
	> v <- 1:3
	> do.call("paste",as.list(v))
	[1] "1 2 3"

	works, but this amounts to playing an unnecessary
	game of ring-around-the-rosy.

				cheers,

					Rolf Turner
					rolf at math.unb.ca

"Eric Elguero" <Eric.Elguero at mpl.ird.fr> writes:
> Hi ev'rybody,
> 
> is there a way to pass a vector to a function
> expecting separate arguments?
> more specifically, I have a character vector, say u
> and I want a single string, but
> >paste(u) 
> doesn't work, so I would like something like 
> >paste(unvector(u)).
> 
> I am interested in a solution to the general problem too,
> as the only one I found is maintaining two versions of the
> functions I write.
In general, something like do.call("foo", as.list(args)), for paste()
in particulare, notice e.g. collapse=" ".


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