Avoid for loop when loop has an increment - r

Question

In R, I try systematically to avoid "for" loops and use lapply() family instead.
But how to do so when an iteration contains an increment step ?
For example : is it possible to obtain the same result as below with a lapply approach ?
a <- c()
b <- c()
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
for (i in 1:10){
a <- c(a, sample(c(0,1), 1))
b <- c(b, (paste(a, collapse = "-")))
}
data.frame(a, b)
> data.frame(a, b)
> a b
> 1 0 0
> 2 1 0-1
> 3 0 0-1-0
> 4 0 0-1-0-0
> 5 1 0-1-0-0-1
> 6 0 0-1-0-0-1-0
> 7 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0
> 8 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0
> 9 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1
> 10 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1-1
EDIT
My question was very badly redacted. The below new example is much more illustrative : is it anyway to use lapply family if each iteration is calculated from the previous one ?
a <- c()
b <- c()
for (i in 1:10){
a <- c(a, sample(c(0,1), 1))
b <- c(b, (paste(a, collapse = "-")))
}
data.frame(a, b)
> data.frame(a, b)
a b
1 0 0
2 1 0-1
3 0 0-1-0
4 1 0-1-0-1
5 1 0-1-0-1-1
6 1 0-1-0-1-1-1
7 1 0-1-0-1-1-1-1
8 0 0-1-0-1-1-1-1-0
9 1 0-1-0-1-1-1-1-0-1
10 1 0-1-0-1-1-1-1-0-1-1

Answer 1

For the sake of completeness, there is also the accumulate() function from the purrr package.
So, building on the answers of Sotos and ThomasIsCoding:
df <- data.frame(a = 1:10)
df$b <- purrr::accumulate(df$a, paste, sep = "-")
df
a b
1 1 1
2 2 1-2
3 3 1-2-3
4 4 1-2-3-4
5 5 1-2-3-4-5
6 6 1-2-3-4-5-6
7 7 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
8 8 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
9 9 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
10 10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
The difference to Reduce() is
that accumulate() is a function verb on its own (no additional parameter accumulate = TRUE required)
and that additional arguments like sep = "-" can be passed on to the mapped function which may help to avoid the creation of an anonymous function.
EDIT
If I understand correctly OP's edit of the question, the OP is asking if a for loop which computes a result iteratively can be replaced by lapply().
This is difficult to answer for me. Here are some thoughts and observations:
First, accumulate() still will work:
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
df <- data.frame(a = sample(0:1, 10L, TRUE))
df$b <- purrr::accumulate(df$a, paste, sep = "-")
df
a b
1 0 0
2 1 0-1
3 0 0-1-0
4 0 0-1-0-0
5 1 0-1-0-0-1
6 0 0-1-0-0-1-0
7 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0
8 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0
9 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1
10 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1-1
This is possible because the computation of a can be pulled out off the loop as it does not depend on b.
IMHO, accumulate() and Reduce() do what the OP is looking for but is not called lapply(): They take the result of the previous iteration and combine it with the actual value, for instance
Reduce(`+`, 1:3)
returns the sum of 1, 2, and 3 by iteratively computing (((0 + 1) + 2) + 3). This can be visualised by using the accumulate parameter
Reduce(`+`, 1:3, accumulate = TRUE)
[1] 1 3 6
Second, there is a major difference between a for loop and functions of the lapply() family: lapply(X, FUN, ...) requires a function FUN to be called on each element of X. So, scoping rules for functions apply.
When we transplant the body of the loop into an anonymous function within lapply()
a <- c()
b <- c()
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
lapply(1:10, function(i) {
a <- c(a, sample(c(0,1), 1))
b <- c(b, (paste(a, collapse = "-")))
})
we get
[[1]]
[1] "0"
[[2]]
[1] "1"
[[3]]
[1] "0"
[[4]]
[1] "0"
[[5]]
[1] "1"
[[6]]
[1] "0"
[[7]]
[1] "0"
[[8]]
[1] "0"
[[9]]
[1] "1"
[[10]]
[1] "1"
data.frame(a, b)
data frame with 0 columns and 0 rows data.frame(a, b)
Due to the scoping rules, a and b inside the function are considered as local to the function. No reference is made to a and b defined outside of the function.
This can be fixed by global assignment using the global assignment operator <<-:
a <- c()
b <- c()
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
lapply(1:10, function(i) {
a <<- c(a, sample(c(0,1), 1))
b <<- c(b, (paste(a, collapse = "-")))
})
data.frame(a, b)
a b
1 0 0
2 1 0-1
3 0 0-1-0
4 0 0-1-0-0
5 1 0-1-0-0-1
6 0 0-1-0-0-1-0
7 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0
8 0 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0
9 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1
10 1 0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1-1
However, global assignment is considered bad programming practice and should be avoided, see, e.g., the 6th Circle of Patrick Burns' The R Inferno and many questions on SO.
Third, the way the loop is written grows vectors in the loop. This also is considered bad practice as it requires to copy the data over and over again which may slow down tremendously with increasing size. See, e.g., the 2nd Circle of Patrick Burns' The R Inferno.
However, the original code
a <- c()
b <- c()
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
for (i in 1:10) {
a <- c(a, sample(c(0,1), 1))
b <- c(b, (paste(a, collapse = "-")))
}
data.frame(a, b)
can be re-written as
a <- integer(10)
b <- character(10)
set.seed(1L) # required for reproducible data
for (i in seq_along(a)) {
a[i] <- sample(c(0,1), 1)
b[i] <- if (i == 1L) a[1] else paste(b[i-1], a[i], sep = "-")
}
data.frame(a, b)
Here, vectors are pre-allocated with the required size to hold the result. Elements to update are identified by subscripting.
Calculation of b[i] still depends only the value of the previous iteration b[i-1] and the actual value a[i] as requested by the OP.

Answer 2

Another way is to use Reduce with accumulate = TRUE, i.e.
df$new <- do.call(rbind, Reduce(paste, split(df, seq(nrow(df))), accumulate = TRUE))
which gives,
a new
1 1 1
2 2 1 2
3 3 1 2 3
4 4 1 2 3 4
5 5 1 2 3 4 5
6 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Answer 3

You can use sapply (lapply would work too but it returns a list) and iterate over every value of a in df and create a sequence and paste the value together.
df <- data.frame(a = 1:10)
df$b <- sapply(df$a, function(x) paste(seq(x), collapse = "-"))
df
# a b
#1 1 1
#2 2 1-2
#3 3 1-2-3
#4 4 1-2-3-4
#5 5 1-2-3-4-5
#6 6 1-2-3-4-5-6
#7 7 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
#8 8 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
#9 9 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
#10 10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
If there could be non-numerical values in data on which we can not use seq like
df <- data.frame(a =letters[1:10])
In those case, we can use
df$b <- sapply(seq_along(df$a), function(x) paste(df$a[seq_len(x)], collapse = "-"))
df
# a b
#1 a a
#2 b a-b
#3 c a-b-c
#4 d a-b-c-d
#5 e a-b-c-d-e
#6 f a-b-c-d-e-f
#7 g a-b-c-d-e-f-g
#8 h a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h
#9 i a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i
#10 j a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j

Answer 4

Another way of using Reduce, different to the approach by #Sotos
df$b <- Reduce(function(...) paste(...,sep = "-"), df$a, accumulate = T)
such that
> df
a b
1 1 1
2 2 1-2
3 3 1-2-3
4 4 1-2-3-4
5 5 1-2-3-4-5
6 6 1-2-3-4-5-6
7 7 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
8 8 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
9 9 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
10 10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10