Loop works outside function but in functions it doesn't. - r

Question

Been going around for hours with this. My 1st question online on R. Trying to creat a function that contains a loop. The function takes a vector that the user submits like in pollutantmean(4:6) and then it loads a bunch of csv files (in the directory mentioned) and binds them. What is strange (to me) is that if I assign the variable id and then run the loop without using a function, it works! When I put it inside a function so that the user can supply the id vector then it does nothing. Can someone help ? thank you!!!
pollutantmean<-function(id=1:332)
{
#read files
allfiles<-data.frame()
id<-str_pad(id,3,pad = "0")
direct<-"/Users/ped/Documents/LearningR/"
for (i in id) {
path<-paste(direct,"/",i,".csv",sep="")
file<-read.csv(path)
allfiles<-rbind(allfiles,file)
}
}

Answer 1

Your function is missing a return value. (#Roland)
pollutantmean<-function(id=1:332) {
#read files
allfiles<-data.frame()
id<-str_pad(id,3,pad = "0")
direct<-"/Users/ped/Documents/LearningR/"
for (i in id) {
path<-paste(direct,"/",i,".csv",sep="")
file<-read.csv(path)
allfiles<-rbind(allfiles,file)
}
return(allfiles)
}
Edit:
Your mistake was that you did not specify in your function what you want to get out from the function. In R, you create objects inside of function (you could imagine it as different environment) and then specify which object you want it to return.
With my comment about accepting my answer, I meant this: (...To mark an answer as accepted, click on the check mark beside the answer to toggle it from greyed out to filled in...).

Answer 2

Consider even an lapply and do.call which would not need return being last line of function:
pollutantmean <- function(id=1:332) {
id <- str_pad(id,3,pad = "0")
direct_files <- paste0("/Users/ped/Documents/LearningR/", id, ".csv")
# READ FILES INTO LIST AND ROW BIND
allfiles <- do.call(rbind, lapply(direct_files, read.csv))
}

Answer 3

ok, I got it. I was expecting the files that are built to be actually created and show up in the environment of R. But for some reason they don't. But R still does all the calculations. Thanks lot for the replies!!!!
pollutantmean<-function(directory,pollutant,id)
{
#read files
allfiles<-data.frame()
id2<-str_pad(id,3,pad = "0")
direct<-paste("/Users/pedroalbuquerque/Documents/Learning R/",directory,sep="")
for (i in id2) {
path<-paste(direct,"/",i,".csv",sep="")
file<-read.csv(path)
allfiles<-rbind(allfiles,file)
}
#averaging polutants
mean(allfiles[,pollutant],na.rm = TRUE)
}
pollutantmean("specdata","nitrate",23:35)