Talbot Katz
2007-Dec-26 21:42 UTC
[R] Can you recover default argument values of a function?
Hi. Maybe this is a stupid question. If so, I apologize, but here goes. Suppose I have a function f1(x,...) that calls a function f2(y1,y2,...,yn) in the following way: if x satisfies a certain condition, then I want to call f2(x,y2,...,yn); otherwise I want to use the default value of y1, if there is one. I could do something like the following: v <- ifelse ( is.null(x), f2( , y2,..., yn), f2( x, y2,..., yn) ) but I'm doing this in a loop (where the y2,...,yn variables may change), and I'd prefer not to execute the ifelse statement each time, so I'd like an initial pre-loop ifelse such as the following: y0 <- ifelse ( is.null(x), default(y1), x ) where default(y1) is the default value of the y1 argument of f2. Then, inside the loop I'd have v <- f2( y0, y2,..., yn ) Is there any mechanism that tells me how many arguments a function has, and the default values of each one, if there are default values? Thanks! -- TMK --212-460-5430 home917-656-5351 cell [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Gabor Grothendieck
2007-Dec-26 22:21 UTC
[R] Can you recover default argument values of a function?
If the default value is a constant such as in f <- function(x = 1) x then formals(f)[[1]] will give it to you but it could be an expression referring to other variables (other arguments, other variables in the function, free variables) such as f <- function(x = u, u) x or f <- function(x = u+v+w, u) { v <- u+1; x } in which case you would get an object of class "name" in the first case or "call" in the second. On Dec 26, 2007 4:42 PM, Talbot Katz <topkatz at msn.com> wrote:> > Hi. > > Maybe this is a stupid question. If so, I apologize, but here goes. Suppose I have a function f1(x,...) that calls a function f2(y1,y2,...,yn) in the following way: if x satisfies a certain condition, then I want to call f2(x,y2,...,yn); otherwise I want to use the default value of y1, if there is one. I could do something like the following: > > v <- ifelse ( is.null(x), f2( , y2,..., yn), f2( x, y2,..., yn) ) > > but I'm doing this in a loop (where the y2,...,yn variables may change), and I'd prefer not to execute the ifelse statement each time, so I'd like an initial pre-loop ifelse such as the following: > > y0 <- ifelse ( is.null(x), default(y1), x ) > > where default(y1) is the default value of the y1 argument of f2. Then, inside the loop I'd have > > v <- f2( y0, y2,..., yn ) > > Is there any mechanism that tells me how many arguments a function has, and the default values of each one, if there are default values? > > Thanks! > > -- TMK --212-460-5430 home917-656-5351 cell > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >