>>>>> "DeepS" == Deepayan Sarkar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>> on Wed, 7 Dec 2005 19:15:52 -0600 writes:
DeepS> On 12/7/05, Jan T. Kim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 04:21:01PM +0000, Patrick Burns wrote:
>> > I don't put in extraneous ';' because I maybe get a
>> > blister on my little finger.
>> >
>> > I suspect that those who find the semi-colons ugly in
>> > R do not find them ugly in C. I think the reason there
>> > would be a visceral reaction in R but not in C is that
>> > there is a danger when using them in R that they really
>> > mean something.
>> >
>> > We get questions on R-help often enough about why
>> > code like:
>> >
>> > if(x > 0) y <- 4
>> > else y <- 4.5e23
>> >
>> > doesn't work.
>> >
>> > If people habitually used semi-colons, those sorts of
>> > questions would probably multiply.
>>
>> I don't understand. It would seem to me that in
>>
>> if (x > 0) y <- 4;
>> else y <- 4.5e23;
>>
>> it's pretty obvious that the "if" statement is terminated by the
>> semicolon at the end of the first line and that therefore, the "else"
>> on the next line is erroneous because it is not associated with any
>> "if".
DeepS> Why is it obvious?
DeepS> if (x > 0) y = 4;
DeepS> else y = 4.5e23;
DeepS> is perfectly legal C.
Very good! I'm glad we got here, namely back to the original
subject, and now have seen a nice example of why it can be a bad
idea to maltreat the S language by extraneous ";" ..
>> At least, the version above fails consistently, i.e. regardless of
>> context.
DeepS> It fails for unrelated reasons.
DeepS> if (x > 0) { y <- 4; } else { y <- 4.5e23; }
DeepS> doesn't fail.
DeepS> -Deepayan
Thank you, Deepayan, Brian,
and all the others "in the knowning" who hadn't lost patience with
this thread yet... ;-)
Martin
>> On the other hand, I've studied the R Language Definition for
>> quite some time before fully understanding why
>>
>> if (x > 0) y <- 4
>> else y <- 4.5e23
>>
>> works inside of a function (or other enclosing block) while it does not
>> work interactively (or at the top level of a script).
>>
>> Best regards, Jan
>> --
>> +- Jan T. Kim -------------------------------------------------------+
>> | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
>> | WWW: http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/people/jtk |
>> *-----=< hierarchical systems are for files, not for humans >=-----*
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