User defined function - issue with return values - r

Question

I regularly come up against the issue of how to categorise dataframes from a list of dataframes according to certain values within them (E.g. numeric, factor strings, etc). I am using a simplified version using vectors here.
After writing messy for loops for this task a bunch of times, I am trying to write a function to repeatedly solve the problem. The code below returns a subscripting error (given at the bottom), however I don't think this is a subscripting problem, but to do with my use of return.
As well as fixing this, I would be very grateful for any pointers on whether there are any cleaner / better ways to code this function.
library(plyr)
library(dplyr)
#dummy data
segmentvalues <- c('1_P', '2_B', '3_R', '4_M', '5_D', '6_L')
trialvec <- vector()
for (i in 1:length(segmentvalues)){
for (j in 1:20) {
trialvec[i*j] <- segmentvalues[i]
}
}
#vector categorisation
vcategorise <- function(categories, data) {
#categorises a vector into a list of vectors
#requires plyr and dyplyr
assignment <- list()
catlength <- length(categories)
for (i in 1:length(catlength)){
for (j in 1:length(data)) {
if (any(contains(categories[i], ignore.case = TRUE,
as.vector(data[j])))) {
assignment[[i]][j] <- data[j]
}
}
}
return (assignment)
}
result <- vcategorise(categories = segmentvalues, data = trialvec)
Error in *tmp*[[i]] : subscript out of bounds

Answer 1

You are indexing assignments -- which is ok, even if at an index that doesn't have a value, that just gives you NULL -- and then indexing into what you get there -- which won't work if you get NULL. And NULL you will get, because you haven't allocated the list to be the right size.
In any case, I don't think it is necessary for you to allocate a table. You are already using a flat indexing structure in your test data generation, so why not do the same with assignment and then set its dimensions afterwards?
Something like this, perhaps?
vcategorise <- function(categories, data) {
assignment <- vector("list", length = length(data) * length(categories))
n <- length(data)
for (i in 1:length(categories)){
for (j in 1:length(data)) {
assignment[(i-1)*n + j] <-
if (any(contains(categories[i],
ignore.case = TRUE,
as.vector(data[j])))) {
data[j]
} else {
NA
}
}
}
dim(assignment) <- c(length(data), length(categories))
assignment
}
It is not the prettiest code, but without fully understanding what you want to achieve, I don't know how to go further.