[R] substitute in a named expression
I have a 'named expression' like expr - expression(rep(1,d)) and would like to replace the argument d with say 5 without actually evaluating the expression. So I try substitute(expr, list(d=5)) in which case R simply returns expr which when I 'evaluate' it gives eval(expr) Error in rep.default(1, d) : invalid number of copies in rep() I've looked at ?substitute and ?expression (and other places) for ideas, but - well I guess there are some details which I haven't quite understood. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks Søren __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
Re: [R] substitute in a named expression
On 6/22/05, Søren Højsgaard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a 'named expression' like expr - expression(rep(1,d)) and would like to replace the argument d with say 5 without actually evaluating the expression. So I try substitute(expr, list(d=5)) in which case R simply returns expr which when I 'evaluate' it gives eval(expr) Error in rep.default(1, d) : invalid number of copies in rep() I've looked at ?substitute and ?expression (and other places) for ideas, but - well I guess there are some details which I haven't quite understood. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Try this: eval(substitute(substitute(qq, list(d=5)), list(qq = expr[[1]]))) This aspect of R drove me crazy some time ago but Tony Plate finally figured it out and discussed it some time back: http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/03/1247.html There is also a handy utility routine, esub, defined there. The key points are: - substitute won't go inside expressions but it will go inside call objects. In this case your expr is an expression but expr[[1]] is a call object with the desired contents. Note that quote will return a call object so you can avoid the [[1]] if you define expr as cl - quote(rep(1,d)) i.e. cl - quote(rep(1,d)) eval(substitute(substitute(cl, list(d=5)), list(cl = cl))) - substitute autoquotes anything inside it so one must substitute in the first argument to the inner substitute using a second outer substitute. That is, the outer substitute substitutes expr[[1]] (which is evaluated) into the first argument of the inner substitute. - the outer substitute wraps the result of the inner one in a call so we must perform an eval to get what is within the call. This part is explained in ?substitute Sorry if this is complicated but that seems to be how it works. Using the esub function defined in the link above you can simplify it substantially like this: esub(cl, list(d=5)) # or esub(expr[[1]], list(d=5)) __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
Re: [R] substitute in a named expression
Gabor Grothendieck [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: On 6/22/05, Søren Højsgaard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a 'named expression' like expr - expression(rep(1,d)) and would like to replace the argument d with say 5 without actually evaluating the expression. So I try substitute(expr, list(d=5)) in which case R simply returns expr which when I 'evaluate' it gives eval(expr) Error in rep.default(1, d) : invalid number of copies in rep() I've looked at ?substitute and ?expression (and other places) for ideas, but - well I guess there are some details which I haven't quite understood. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Try this: eval(substitute(substitute(qq, list(d=5)), list(qq = expr[[1]]))) This aspect of R drove me crazy some time ago but Tony Plate finally figured it out and discussed it some time back: http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/03/1247.html There is also a handy utility routine, esub, defined there. The key points are: - substitute won't go inside expressions but it will go inside call objects. In this case your expr is an expression but expr[[1]] is a call object with the desired contents. Note that quote will return a call object so you can avoid the [[1]] if you define expr as cl - quote(rep(1,d)) i.e. cl - quote(rep(1,d)) eval(substitute(substitute(cl, list(d=5)), list(cl = cl))) - substitute autoquotes anything inside it so one must substitute in the first argument to the inner substitute using a second outer substitute. That is, the outer substitute substitutes expr[[1]] (which is evaluated) into the first argument of the inner substitute. - the outer substitute wraps the result of the inner one in a call so we must perform an eval to get what is within the call. This part is explained in ?substitute Sorry if this is complicated but that seems to be how it works. Using the esub function defined in the link above you can simplify it substantially like this: esub(cl, list(d=5)) # or esub(expr[[1]], list(d=5)) Yes, substitute() is a bass-ackward design and the automatic quoting of the first arg is a pain. It would have been much cleaner if standard semantics were used and you'd just quote() the argument when needed. Your explanation of eval(substitute(substitute(qq, list(d=5)), list(qq = expr[[1]]))) is a tad long-winded though. What happens is that the inner unevaluated substitute(qq, list(d=5)) gets the qq replaced by the value of expr[[1]]. In casu it becomes substitute(rep(1,d),list(d=5)) this then needs to be evaluated, yielding rep(1,5) -- O__ Peter Dalgaard Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen Denmark Ph: (+45) 35327918 ~~ - ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) FAX: (+45) 35327907 __ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
