R- Assign Inside a Function

R- assign inside a function

We need to use envir argument for the assign to access the environment outside the function.

creaMelts<-function(tbl){
library(reshape2)
texto<-deparse(substitute(tbl))
tbl2<-melt(tbl, id.vars=rownames(tbl))
texto2<-substr(texto,4,nchar(texto))
colnames(tbl2)<-c('userId','movieId', texto2)
tblName<<-paste0('df', texto2)
print(paste('tblName', tblName, ' '))
assign(tblName, tbl2, envir = parent.frame() )

}

creaMelts(tablaXYZ)
dflaXYZ
# userId movieId laXYZ NA
#1 2 3 a 1
#2 3 4 a 2

assign values inside a function based on specific columns in a data frame

One simple way is to wrap the search_fips() function in a lapply function and rest stays the same.

library(zipcodeR)

a = c("17","17","29")
b = c("133","163","055")
df<-data.frame(a, b)

output <-lapply(1:nrow(df), function(i) {
search_fips(df$a[i], df$b[i])
})

answer <- dplyr::bind_rows(output)

When is R's assign() function appropriate?

If you were constructing a program that mediated a dialogue with a user wherein the user was asked to input an arbitrary object name (in the specific R sense of an unquoted string that that is listed in a particular namespace), you might consider using assign.

The option to assign to a particular environment may also have value. Notice how it is used in the ecdf function:

ecdf
#----screen output----
function (x)
{
x <- sort(x)
n <- length(x)
if (n < 1)
stop("'x' must have 1 or more non-missing values")
vals <- unique(x)
rval <- approxfun(vals, cumsum(tabulate(match(x, vals)))/n,
method = "constant", yleft = 0, yright = 1, f = 0, ties = "ordered")
class(rval) <- c("ecdf", "stepfun", class(rval))
assign("nobs", n, envir = environment(rval))
attr(rval, "call") <- sys.call()
rval
}
<bytecode: 0x7c77cc0>
<environment: namespace:stats>

The ecdf function takes data and returns another function. Most of that function is built with a C call by approxfun, but as a last feature, the ecdf function adds an element to the environment of the returned value (which is yet another function.)

I'm sure you could find other instances where assign is used in the R code of the base and stats packages. Those are arguably "R Core Certified^({TM)}" examples of "proper" uses.

When I followed my own advice I got this from a bash operation:

$ cd '/home/david/Downloads/R-3.5.2/src/library/base/R/' 
$ grep -R "assign"
# --- results with a recent download of the R sources -----
userhooks.R: assign(hookName, new, envir = .userHooksEnv, inherits = FALSE)
datetime.R: cacheIt <- function(tz) assign(".sys.timezone", tz, baseenv())
autoload.R: assign(".Autoloaded", c(package, .Autoloaded), envir =.AutoloadEnv)
lazyload.R: ## set <- function (x, value, env) .Internal(assign(x, value, env, FALSE))
delay.R: function(x, value, eval.env=parent.frame(1), assign.env=parent.frame(1))
delay.R: .Internal(delayedAssign(x, substitute(value), eval.env, assign.env))
assign.R:# File src/library/base/R/assign.R
assign.R:assign <-
assign.R: .Internal(assign(x, value, envir, inherits))
# stripped out some occurences of "assighnment"
# stripped out the occurrences of "assign" in the namespace functions
zzz.R:assign("%*%", function(x, y) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("...length", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("...elt", function(n) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".C", function(.NAME, ..., NAOK = FALSE, DUP = TRUE, PACKAGE,
zzz.R:assign(".Fortran",
zzz.R:assign(".Call", function(.NAME, ..., PACKAGE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".Call.graphics", function(.NAME, ..., PACKAGE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".External", function(.NAME, ..., PACKAGE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".External2", function(.NAME, ..., PACKAGE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".External.graphics", function(.NAME, ..., PACKAGE) NULL,
zzz.R:assign(".Internal", function(call) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".Primitive", function(name) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".isMethodsDispatchOn", function(onOff = NULL) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".primTrace", function(obj) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".primUntrace", function(obj) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".subset", function(x, ...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".subset2", function(x, ...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("UseMethod", function(generic, object) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("as.call", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("attr", function(x, which, exact = FALSE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("attr<-", function(x, which, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("attributes", function(obj) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("attributes<-", function(obj, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("baseenv", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("browser",
zzz.R:assign("call", function(name, ...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("class", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("class<-", function(x, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign(".cache_class", function(class, extends) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("emptyenv", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("enc2native", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("enc2utf8", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("environment<-", function(fun, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("expression", function(...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("forceAndCall", function(n, FUN, ...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("gc.time", function(on = TRUE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("globalenv", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("interactive", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("invisible", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.atomic", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.call", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.character", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.complex", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.double", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.environment", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.expression", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.function", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.integer", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.language", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.list", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.logical", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.name", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.null", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.object", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.pairlist", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.raw", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.recursive", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.single", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("is.symbol", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("isS4", function(object) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("list", function(...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("lazyLoadDBfetch", function(key, file, compressed, hook) NULL,
zzz.R:assign("missing", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("nargs", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("nzchar", function(x, keepNA=FALSE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("oldClass", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("oldClass<-", function(x, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("on.exit", function(expr = NULL, add = FALSE, after = TRUE) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("pos.to.env", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("proc.time", function() NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("quote", function(expr) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("retracemem", function(x, previous = NULL) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("seq_along", function(along.with) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("seq_len", function(length.out) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("standardGeneric", function(f, fdef) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("storage.mode<-", function(x, value) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("substitute", function(expr, env) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("switch", function(EXPR, ...) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("tracemem", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("unclass", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("untracemem", function(x) NULL, envir = .ArgsEnv)
zzz.R: assign(f, fx, envir = env) # grep fails to include the names of these
zzz.R: assign(f, fx, envir = env)
zzz.R: assign(f, fx, envir = env)
zzz.R: assign(f, fx, envir = env)
zzz.R: assign(f, fx, envir = env)
zzz.R: assign("anyNA", fx, envir = env)
zzz.R:assign("!", function(x) UseMethod("!"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("as.character", function(x, ...) UseMethod("as.character"),
zzz.R:assign("as.complex", function(x, ...) UseMethod("as.complex"),
zzz.R:assign("as.double", function(x, ...) UseMethod("as.double"),
zzz.R:assign("as.integer", function(x, ...) UseMethod("as.integer"),
zzz.R:assign("as.logical", function(x, ...) UseMethod("as.logical"),
zzz.R:#assign("as.raw", function(x) UseMethod("as.raw"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:## assign("c", function(..., recursive = FALSE, use.names = TRUE) UseMethod("c"),
zzz.R:assign("c", function(...) UseMethod("c"),
zzz.R:#assign("dimnames", function(x) UseMethod("dimnames"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("dim<-", function(x, value) UseMethod("dim<-"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("dimnames<-", function(x, value) UseMethod("dimnames<-"),
zzz.R:assign("length<-", function(x, value) UseMethod("length<-"),
zzz.R:assign("levels<-", function(x, value) UseMethod("levels<-"),
zzz.R:assign("log", function(x, base=exp(1)) UseMethod("log"),
zzz.R:assign("names<-", function(x, value) UseMethod("names<-"),
zzz.R:assign("rep", function(x, ...) UseMethod("rep"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("round", function(x, digits=0) UseMethod("round"),
zzz.R:assign("seq.int", function(from, to, by, length.out, along.with, ...)
zzz.R:assign("signif", function(x, digits=6) UseMethod("signif"),
zzz.R:assign("trunc", function(x, ...) UseMethod("trunc"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:#assign("xtfrm", function(x) UseMethod("xtfrm"), envir = .GenericArgsEnv)
zzz.R:assign("as.numeric", get("as.double", envir = .GenericArgsEnv),

How to assign object to output of a function?

We can use assign

assign(format(Sys.Date(), "%b%d"), mtcars)

head(Sep11)
# mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
#Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
#Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
#Datsun 710 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
#Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
#Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
#Valiant 18.1 6 225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1

Pass data frame and reference it for assignment inside function in R

Try not to use <<- unless absolutely necessary. Functions shouldn't change existing objects. So just have the function return some_data_frame and then assign it explicitly as needed.

create_blanks<- function(quarters_list,some_data_frame){

for(qcols in c("Q1", "Q2", "Q3", "Q4")){
if(qcols %in% quarters_list){
next
}else{
some_data_frame[,qcols] <- ""

}
} # End of quarter if/else
some_data_frame
} # End of function
data_frame_dummy <- create_blanks(active_quarters, data_frame_dummy)
data_frame_dummy
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
1 1 5
2 2 6
3 3 7
4 4 8

Pipeable assign function for R -- does not assign anything

By default assign assigns value in it's current scope i.e within the function in this case. Specify envir = parent.frame() in assign.

assignp <- function(value, x) {
assign(x, value, envir = parent.frame())
#You can also use .GlobalEnv to assign to global environment directly.
#assign(x, value, envir = .GlobalEnv)
}

assignp(13, "thirteen")
thirteen

#[1] 13

How to assign function argument to variable name

You were close! There are multiple ways of subsetting dataframes, including using the [[.]] notation (e.g., data[["var"]]. Simply assigning a value to a new column initializes the column.

fun <- function(varname) {
data <- data.frame(a = c(1,2,3))
data[[varname]] <- sqrt(data$a)
data
}

fun("newvar")


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