Problem with updating R code inserts in Pluto.jl - r

I have some amount of code in R left over from my past research. It's not very fast, but it works. Julia generously allows to postpone the full migration process for later, using this R code via Rcall, this is very convenient. Recently I decided to prepare one interactive demo using Pluto and among other things in one place used the insertion of R code via Rcall. At the first launch, if only open notebook, everything works, but if change anything in this code block and recalculate it, Pluto returns an error like this:
cannot assign a value to variable workspace407.b from module workspace408
This error occurs even when using the simplest code, so the problem is not an error in the R code, but in the relationship between the environments when updating cell with this code. If run this code directly from Julia, without Pluto, there is no such problem. Here is a completely primitive example that demonstrates the problem:
begin
a = 2
#rput a
R"""
b = a*2
"""
#rget b
b
end
For this to work, using Rcall must be called somewhere before and R must be installed and configured for external startup. On the first run of Pluto notebook with this code, everything works as it should. But if change for example b = a*2 to b = a*3 and update cell with this code, Pluto will give an error. How to solve this problem?

Related

Using reticulate with targets

I'm having this weird issue where my target, which interfaces a slightly customized python module (installed with pip install --editable) through reticulate, gives different results when it's being called from an interactive session in R from when targets is being started from the command line directly, even when I make sure the other argument(s) to tar_make are identical (callr_function = NULL, which I use for interactive debugging). The function is deterministic and should be returning the exact same result but isn't.
It's tricky to provide a reproducible example but if truly necessary I'll invest the required time in it. I'd like to get tips on how to debug this and identify the exact issue. I already safeguarded against potential pointer issues; the python object is not getting passed around between different targets/environments (anymore), rather it's immediately used to compute the result of interest. I also checked that the same python version is being used by printing the result of reticulate::pyconfig() to screen. I also verified both approaches are using the same version of the customized module.
Thanks in advance..!

Very simple question on Console vs Script in R

I have just started to learn to code on R, so I apologize for the very simple question. I understand it is best to type your code in as a Script so you can edit and save it. However, when I try to make an object in the script section, it does not work. If I make an object in the console, R saves the object and it appears in my environment. I am typing in a very simple code to try a quick exercise on rolling dice:
die <- 1:6
But it only works in the console and not when typed as a script. Any help/explanation appreciated!
Essentially, you interact with R environment differently when running an .R script via RScript.exe or via console with R.exe, Rterm, etc. and in GUI IDEs like RGui or RStudio. (This applies to any programming language with interactive compilers not just R).
The script does save thedie object in R environment but only during the run or lifetime of that script (i.e., from beginning to end of code lines). Your code line is simply an assignment of object. You do nothing with it. Apply some function, output results, and other actions in that script to see.
On the console, the R environment persists interactively until you quit it with q(). So assigned objects remains for lifetime of your console session. After assigning, you can afterwards apply function, output results, or other actions in line by line calls.
Ultimately, scripts gathers all line by line code in advance of run for automated execution without relying on user to supply lines. Imagine running 1,000 lines of code with nested if/then or for/while loops, apply functions on console! Therefore, have all your R coding needs summarily handled in scripts.
It is always better to have the script, as you say, you can save edit correct, without having to rewrite the code to change a variable or number.
I recommend using Rstudio, it is very practical and will help you to program more efficiently and allows you to see, among other things, the different objects that you have created.

Why is source speed different from RStudio console line code?

I have a script with self-written functions (no plots). When I copy-paste that script into the R-Studio console, it takes ages to execute, but when I use source("Helperfunctions.R") it doesn't take more than a second.
Question: Where does the difference in speed come from?
I am aware of two differences between running code via the source() function vs. entering code at the R-Studio console:
From ?source:
Since expressions are not executed at the top level, auto-printing is not done.
The way I understand this: source() will not plot graphs (unless made specific with e.g. print(plot)), while the R Studio console codes will always plot graphs. I'm sure this will affect the speed of execution to a certain degree, but this seems irrelevant in my case, because there are barely any plot calls.
And:
(...) the complete file is parsed before any of it is run
I have been working with R for a while now, but I'm not sure whether this relevant for the speed-issue I'm having. Is it possible that completely parsing all code "before any of it is run" speeds up the execution of my helper functions script by a factor of a hundred?
Edit: I'm using R version 3.2.3.
The issue is not source() vs. console line code. Instead, it is an issue of how RStudio sends code from the source pane to the console.
When I copy the content of Helperfunctions.R and run it in RGui (instead of RStudio), the code is executed with nearly the same speed as when I use source("Helperfunctions.R") in RStudio.
Apparently, lines of code always (?) require more execution time in RStudio than in RGui. Even though you may usually not notice the time-difference when executing a couple of lines in the console, it seems to make a huge difference when, say, 3.000 lines of code are being executed in the R Studio console at once.
My understanding is that upon using source("Helperfunctions.R") in the RStudio source pane, the code is not actually sent to the RStudio console (which would have been slow), but is actually executed directly in the R language.

Running Julia from Textmate

I'm using Textmate as my code editor, and I would like to be able to run Julia from it. I have no problems saving the .jl file and sending it to the Terminal (via the Julia bundle in Textmate), but I was wondering if it is possible to make the session interactive, so, for example, the variables are stored while the session is running (so, for instance, I could send the code to Julia line by line, or have something like Rdaemon).
I use TextMate a lot with Julia. With Julia 1.0, everything got a lot more convenient. These are basically the steps you need to do:
Make sure you put your code in a package.
Start Julia in your terminal, Then `using YourPackage; using Revise
Revise.jl makes life a lot easier. You can work in TextMate and change the code of your functions and that will automatically get reflected in your REPL session. No need to reload. So you keep all your variables.
Occasionally you have to restart because you changed the visibility of a function or a type.
I have a more detailed explanation of my workflow in Julia 1.0 here.

Error with Rexcel when starting up Excel

Today something happened (never had this problem before) when I start up Excel workbook where I use Rexcel.
And then there are some more errors... Everything worked properly before.. Does anyone have an idea about what the problem could be?
The other strange thing is that after that the Rapply and so on works.. But I get errors again when I close workbook.
So the problem appears when I startR from Rexcel meny in Excel.
EDIT:
Thanks to flodel for his answer. But is it not possible to run the Sub below now or?
Sub create_efficient_frontier()
RInterface.StartRServer
Sheets("Analys").Range("A52:K82").ClearContents
RInterface.PutDataframe "datat", Range("ChosenData!X181:AD352")
RInterface.PutArray "startdate", Range("Analys!K2")
RInterface.PutArray "enddate", Range("Analys!K3")
RInterface.RunRFile "C:/Users/Documents/EffFront.R"
RInterface.GetDataframe "hmz$pweight", Range("Analys!A51:E76")
End Sub
I get runtime error 13 ("incompatible types") at line
RInterface.GetDataframe "hmz$pweight", Range("Analys!A51:E76")
That worked yesterday, see Run macro with Rexcel
Solution:
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F9 seems to work:)
Best Regards
Yes. I have struggled with this myself. Most likely your computations must be computed in a specific order. Typically, some of your (RApply, REval, etc.) calls create some data (e.g. x <- 10) in the R session and later calls will expect that data to exist: compute x^2.
Everything works fine when you build your spreadhseet from scratch. The problem is that when you save it and reopen it, Excel does not know in what order it needs to compute your cells: it figures out its dependency tree by firing out cell computations in a somewhat random order. So what happens is the cell supposed to compute x^2 might be run before the cell that creates x in your R environment, which triggers an error.
This is annoying but as you noticed, the errors do eventually go away after Excel is able to build its dependency tree. If you absolutely need to find a solution to that problem, it will have to involve VBA code to help Excel build its dependency tree in a very specific order.

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