It is a holdover from my past when one of the languages that I used to use had that convention for 'local' variables in a block of code. I was used to the convention of being able to define a variable that was only known in the enclosing block. By convention I try to keep those objects active for only a few statements and not use them to carry values over a long block of code. I also use it to break up a long, complex statement into several steps so I can remember what is going on. I also tend to use them within 'applys' since I know they will disappear after the call.
On 10/25/07, Rolf Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 26/10/2007, at 11:44 AM, Tim Calkins wrote: > > > Hi everyone - > > > > This came up within the last day -- Jim's response to Deepankar is > > pasted below. > > (but snipped out of this response). > > > There are probably lots of reasons, but what is the advantage to using > > .temp over, say, temp? > > > > I often find myself writing temporary objects -- should I use the . > > preface? What would be the advantages to doing so? > > > > Thanks in advance for what will surely be a collection of illuminating > > responses. > > The difference is that you see ``temp'' when you do an ls() of your > workspace, and you don't see ``.temp'' --- it's hidden. Unless you ask > particularly nicely! > > The advantage of using .temp is that you can't see it (so it doesn't > clutter things up). > > The ***dis**advantage of using .temp is that you can't see it! :-) > > I guess the rationale for using .temp is the presumption that if you > can't see it > you don't really want it. I.e. overwriting something called .temp is > unlikely to lose > you an object that you desperately wanted to keep. If you were > passionately fond > of the contents of .temp, you would've named the object in such a way > that you > could look at it from time to time without having to make a special > effort (having to set > all.names=TRUE). > > OTOH something called temp is unlikely to be something of which you are > passionately fond anyhow. > > cheers, > > Rolf Turner > > ###################################################################### > Attention:\ This e-mail message is privileged and confid...{{dropped:9}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@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. > -- Jim Holtman Cincinnati, OH +1 513 646 9390 What is the problem you are trying to solve? ______________________________________________ R-help@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.