Dear all,
"Writing R Extensions" explicitly says that
A method must have all the arguments of the generic, including ...
if the generic does.
A method must have arguments in exactly the same order as the generic.
If the generic specifies defaults, all methods should use the same
defaults.
This is clear. R CMD check even checks for this.
But then how is it possible that for plot(), which is an S3 generic,
plot.default(), plot.formula() and plot.table(), etc. all have
different arguments?
The question is not simply theoretical, I have two S3 generics in my
package, and one is reported by R CMD check, but the other not, and I
fail to see why the difference.
Moreover, R CMD check reports:
* checking S3 generic/method consistency ... WARNING
plot:
function(x, ...)
plot.communities:
function(communities, graph, colbar, col, mark.groups, layout,
edge.color, ...)
But actually, the signature of plot() seems to be> plot
function (x, y, ...)
[...]
I am confused. What am I missing?
Thanks, Best Regards,
Gabor
--
Gabor Csardi <Gabor.Csardi at unil.ch> UNIL DGM
On 21/06/2010 9:31 AM, G?bor Cs?rdi wrote:> Dear all, > > "Writing R Extensions" explicitly says that > > A method must have all the arguments of the generic, including ... > if the generic does. > A method must have arguments in exactly the same order as the generic. > If the generic specifies defaults, all methods should use the same > defaults. > > This is clear. R CMD check even checks for this. > > But then how is it possible that for plot(), which is an S3 generic, > plot.default(), plot.formula() and plot.table(), etc. all have > different arguments? > > The question is not simply theoretical, I have two S3 generics in my > package, and one is reported by R CMD check, but the other not, and I > fail to see why the difference. > > Moreover, R CMD check reports: > * checking S3 generic/method consistency ... WARNING > plot: > function(x, ...) > plot.communities: > function(communities, graph, colbar, col, mark.groups, layout, > edge.color, ...) > > But actually, the signature of plot() seems to be > > plot > function (x, y, ...) > [...] > > I am confused. What am I missing?The requirement is that the methods need to have signatures that contain all the arguments of the generic. If the generic includes ..., then the methods can add other arguments, too. So with the generic for plot() as you show above, any plot method is required to have x and y as the first two arguments, and ... as an argument, but they can have other args too. Looking at them: head(plot.default) 1 function (x, y = NULL, type = "p", xlim = NULL, ylim = NULL, 2 log = "", main = NULL, sub = NULL, xlab = NULL, ylab = NULL, 3 ann = par("ann"), axes = TRUE, frame.plot = axes, panel.first = NULL, 4 panel.last = NULL, asp = NA, ...) This is okay. head(graphics:::plot.formula) 1 function (formula, data = parent.frame(), ..., subset, ylab = varnames[response], 2 ask = dev.interactive()) This violates the rule, so if someone does this: y <- rnorm(10) x <- 1:10 formula <- y ~ x plot(formula) they'll get what they want, but plot(x = formula) they'll get an obscure error message: > plot(x=formula) Error in terms.formula(formula, data = data) : argument is not a valid model head(graphics:::plot.table) 1 function (x, type = "h", ylim = c(0, max(x)), lwd = 2, xlab = NULL, 2 ylab = NULL, frame.plot = is.num, ...) This also violates the rule, but it's hard to think of an example where it might cause trouble. HOWEVER, plot() is a very old function, and methods were written for it long before the current rule was established. So it is handled specially by the check code. The y argument is not required (see the checkArgs code in src/library/tools/R/QC.R), and apparently the first arg doesn't need to be named x in plot.formula, due to some other exception which I can't spot right now. So I would not use the base code for plot() as an example of what you should do. Duncan Murdoch
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote: [...]> The requirement is that the methods need to have signatures that contain all > the arguments of the generic. ?If the generic includes ..., then the methods > can add other arguments, too. ?So with the generic for plot() as you show > above, any plot method is required to have x and y as the first two > arguments, and ... as an argument, but they can have other args too.This makes sense, and it is actually great! Thanks a lot for the explanation. Best Regards, Gabor [...] -- Gabor Csardi <Gabor.Csardi at unil.ch> UNIL DGM
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:23 PM, G?bor Cs?rdi <csardi at rmki.kfki.hu> wrote:> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Duncan Murdoch > <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote: > [...] >> The requirement is that the methods need to have signatures that contain all >> the arguments of the generic. ?If the generic includes ..., then the methods >> can add other arguments, too. ?So with the generic for plot() as you show >> above, any plot method is required to have x and y as the first two >> arguments, and ... as an argument, but they can have other args too. > > This makes sense, and it is actually great! Thanks a lot for the explanation.FYI, the most "generic" way you can write a generic function is: foo <- function(...) UseMethod("foo"); /Henrik> > Best Regards, > Gabor > > [...] > > > -- > Gabor Csardi <Gabor.Csardi at unil.ch> ? ? UNIL DGM > > ______________________________________________ > 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. >
On Mon, 21 Jun 2010, Henrik Bengtsson wrote:> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:23 PM, G?bor Cs?rdi <csardi at rmki.kfki.hu> wrote: >> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Duncan Murdoch >> <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote: >> [...] >>> The requirement is that the methods need to have signatures that contain all >>> the arguments of the generic. ?If the generic includes ..., then the methods >>> can add other arguments, too. ?So with the generic for plot() as you show >>> above, any plot method is required to have x and y as the first two >>> arguments, and ... as an argument, but they can have other args too. >> >> This makes sense, and it is actually great! Thanks a lot for the explanation. > > FYI, the most "generic" way you can write a generic function is: > > foo <- function(...) UseMethod("foo"); >This is only the "most generic" way if you want dispatch on the first argument. You can have dispatch on a different argument, and that requires you to specify arguments to the generic function. For example, I have written quite a few functions of the form foo <- function(formula, data, ...) UseMethod("foo", data) -thomas Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics tlumley at u.washington.edu University of Washington, Seattle