Always nice to answer my own question 3 minutes later. The missing() function does what I want. Still, why DOES this exists() statement fail? Do functions "auto create" the variables once they are called, regardless of whether or not they are assigned?
--j On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Jonathan Greenberg <greenb...@ucdavis.edu> wrote: > I'm a bit confused about how exists() work within a function -- I want > to test for unassigned variables, but I'm doing tests in the main > environment to figure out the function, so the variables DO exist in > the parent environment of a function call. > > Why does: > myfunction <- function(variable_outside_function) > { > print(exists("variable_outside_function",inherit=FALSE)) > print(exists("another_variable_outside_function",inherit=FALSE)) > } > > myfunction() > > Return: > [1] TRUE > [1] FALSE > > I didn't assign anything to variable_outside_function, so I'm unclear > why it thinks it exists... > > --j > ______________________________________________ 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.