R help - Mar 2012 - function input as variable name (deparse/quote/paste) ??

Hi all

Say I have a function:

myname=function(dat,x=5,y=6){
    res<<-x+y-dat
}

for various input such as

myname(dat1)
myname(dat2)
myname(dat3)
myname(dat4)
myname(dat5)

how should I modify the 'res' line, to have new informative variable
name
correspondingly, such as

dat1.res
dat2.res
dat3.res
dat4.res
dat5.res

stored in the workspace.

This is only an example of a complex function I have written.

Thanks in advance!

Casper




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On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 01:29:16PM -0800, casperyc
wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> Say I have a function:
> 
> myname=function(dat,x=5,y=6){
>     res<<-x+y-dat
> }
> 
> for various input such as
> 
> myname(dat1)
> myname(dat2)
> myname(dat3)
> myname(dat4)
> myname(dat5)
> 
> how should I modify the 'res' line, to have new informative
variable name
> correspondingly, such as
> 
> dat1.res
> dat2.res
> dat3.res
> dat4.res
> dat5.res
> 
> stored in the workspace.
Why not keep the information of input values in a list, or vector?
What is gained by storing that info in the variable _name_ ? Your
function could return a list with both the result and the input value.

While you did say that this was part of something complex, I suspect
your post might be a case of "Being overly specific and not stating
your real goal."

-- 
Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) <hans at sociologi.cjb.net>

On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 10:29 AM, casperyc <casperyc at hotmail.co.uk>
wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Say I have a function:
>
> myname=function(dat,x=5,y=6){
> ? ?res<<-x+y-dat
> }
>
> for various input such as
>
> myname(dat1)
> myname(dat2)
> myname(dat3)
> myname(dat4)
> myname(dat5)
>
> how should I modify the 'res' line, to have new informative
variable name
> correspondingly, such as
>
> dat1.res
> dat2.res
> dat3.res
> dat4.res
> dat5.res
You *can* do it with

myname=function(dat,x=5,y=6){
      name<-paste(deparse(substitute(dat)),"res",sep=".")
      assign(name, x+y-dat, parent.frame(), inherits=TRUE)
 }

but I would be very surprised if this is actually the best way to do
whatever complex thing you are really doing.

It's very unusual for assignments into the global workspace to be a
useful R programming technique.

   -thomas

-- 
Thomas Lumley
Professor of Biostatistics
University of Auckland

Thank you everyone for your reply.

Like I said in my original post, this is just a demonstrative example of my
'big' self written script.

My 'big' function take several inputs, of which the first 1 is the
dataset
and returns a LIST variable 'res<<-list()' to the workspace with
many
information.

The names of my actual datasets are NOT in any pattern, like 'dat1',
'dat2',
'dat3'. That's why i wonder if I can modify
the line 'res<<-' in anyway to be 'res.dat<<-' where
'dat' in the first
input. So I can CALL via 'res.dat' (or res.newdata, res.olddata,
res.tmpdata,res.hisdata) in the workspace any time I want to have a look.

-----
###################################################
PhD candidate in Statistics
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent
###################################################

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