I think the OP might also be tripped up on the fact that R is pass-by-value so effects on df inside DropLikeSAS won't have impact outside the function's scope. The df inside of DropLikeSAS() is changed as expected, but that has no effect on the df outside that function.
To the OP: There are ways to get pass-by-reference behavior (which I think is what you are expecting), but the default is pass-by-value for good reason. Give it a shot for a while and see if you come to like it -- I think you will. Best, Michael On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 4:22 PM, David Winsemius <dwinsem...@comcast.net> wrote: > > On Jun 22, 2012, at 5:09 PM, Joseph Boyer wrote: > >> DropLikeSAS <- function(x,df) { >> >> df[[x]] <- NULL >> >> 0 >> >> } >> >> DropLikeSAS("VarName", DataFrameName) > > > Sorry for the blank message> > >> DropLikeSAS <- function(x,df) { > + df[[x]] <- NULL > + return(df) } >> >> DropLikeSAS("b", df) > a > 1 1 > 2 2 > 3 3 > 4 4 > 5 5 > 6 6 > 7 7 > 8 8 > 9 9 > 10 10 > >> > > > David Winsemius, MD > West Hartford, CT > > ______________________________________________ > 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. ______________________________________________ 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.