remove all variables except functions - r

I have loaded in a R console different type of objects.
I can remove them all using
rm(list=ls())
or remove only the functions (but not the variables) using
rm(list=lsf.str())
My question is:
is there a way to remove all variables except the functions

Here's a one-liner that removes all objects except for functions:
rm(list = setdiff(ls(), lsf.str()))
It uses setdiff to find the subset of objects in the global environment (as returned by ls()) that don't have mode function (as returned by lsf.str())

The posted setdiff answer is nice. I just thought I'd post this related function I wrote a while back. Its usefulness is up to the reader :-).
lstype<-function(type='closure'){
inlist<-ls(.GlobalEnv)
if (type=='function') type <-'closure'
typelist<-sapply(sapply(inlist,get),typeof)
return(names(typelist[typelist==type]))
}

You can use the following command to clear out ALL variables. Be careful because it you cannot get your variables back.
rm(list=ls(all=TRUE))

Here's a pretty convenient function I picked up somewhere and adjusted a little. Might be nice to keep in the directory.
list.objects <- function(env = .GlobalEnv)
{
if(!is.environment(env)){
env <- deparse(substitute(env))
stop(sprintf('"%s" must be an environment', env))
}
obj.type <- function(x) class(get(x, envir = env))
foo <- sapply(ls(envir = env), obj.type)
object.name <- names(foo)
names(foo) <- seq(length(foo))
dd <- data.frame(CLASS = foo, OBJECT = object.name,
stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
dd[order(dd$CLASS),]
}
> x <- 1:5
> d <- data.frame(x)
> list.objects()
# CLASS OBJECT
# 1 data.frame d
# 2 function list.objects
# 3 integer x
> list.objects(env = x)
# Error in list.objects(env = x) : "x" must be an environment

I wrote this to remove all objects apart from functions from the current environment (Programming language used is R with IDE R-Studio):
remove_list=c() # create a vector
for(i in 1:NROW(ls())){ # repeat over all objects in environment
if(class(get(ls()[i]))!="function"){ # if object is *not* a function
remove_list=c(remove_list,ls()[i]) # ..add to vector remove_list
}
}
rm(list=remove_list) # remove all objects named in remove_list
Notes-
The argument "list" in rm(list=) must be a character vector.
The name of an object in position i of the current environment is returned from ls()[i] and the object itself from get(ls()[i]). Therefore the class of an object is returned from class(get(ls()[i]))

Related

assigning delayed variables in R

I've just read about delayedAssign(), but the way you have to do it is by passing the name of the delayed variable as the first parameter. Is there a way to do it via direct assignment?
e.g.:
x <- delayed_variable("Hello World")
rather than
delayedAssign("x","Hello World")
I want to create a variable that will throw an error if accessed (use-case is obviously more complex), so for example:
f <- function(x){
y <- delayed_variable(stop("don't use y"))
x
}
f(10)
> 10
f <- function(x){
y <- delayed_variable(stop("don't use y"))
y
}
f(10)
> Error in f(10) : don't use y
No, you can't do it that way. Your example would be fine with the current setup, though:
f <- function(x){
delayedAssign("y", stop("don't use y"))
y
}
f(10)
which gives exactly the error you want. The reason for this limitation is that delayed_variable(stop("don't use y")) would create a value which would trigger the error when evaluated, and assigning it to y would evaluate it.
Another version of the same thing would be
f <- function(x, y = stop("don't use y")) {
...
}
Internally it's very similar to the delayedAssign version.
I reached a solution using makeActiveBinding() which works provided it is being called from within a function (so it doesn't work if called directly and will throw an error if it is). The main purpose of my use-case is a smaller part of this, but I generalised the code a bit for others to use.
Importantly for my use-case, this function can allow other functions to use delayed assignment within functions and can also pass R CMD Check with no Notes.
Here is the function and it gives the desired outputs from my question.
delayed_variable <- function(call){
#Get the current call
prev.call <- sys.call()
attribs <- attributes(prev.call)
# If srcref isn't there, then we're not coming from a function
if(is.null(attribs) || !"srcref" %in% names(attribs)){
stop("delayed_variable() can only be used as an assignment within a function.")
}
# Extract the call including the assignment operator
this_call <- parse(text=as.character(attribs$srcref))[[1]]
# Check if this is an assignment `<-` or `=`
if(!(identical(this_call[[1]],quote(`<-`)) ||
identical(this_call[[1]],quote(`=`)))){
stop("delayed_variable() can only be used as an assignment within a function.")
}
# Get the variable being assigned to as a symbol and a string
var_sym <- this_call[[2]]
var_str <- deparse(var_sym)
#Get the parent frame that we will be assigining into
p_frame <- parent.frame()
var_env <- new.env(parent = p_frame)
#Create a random string to be an identifier
var_rand <- paste0(sample(c(letters,LETTERS),50,replace=TRUE),collapse="")
#Put the variables into the environment
var_env[["p_frame"]] <- p_frame
var_env[["var_str"]] <- var_str
var_env[["var_rand"]] <- var_rand
# Create the function that will be bound to the variable.
# Since this is an Active Binding (AB), we have three situations
# i) It is run without input, and thus the AB is
# being called on it's own (missing(input)),
# and thus it should evaluate and return the output of `call`
# ii) It is being run as the lhs of an assignment
# as part of the initial assignment phase, in which case
# we do nothing (i.e. input is the output of this function)
# iii) It is being run as the lhs of a regular assignment,
# in which case, we want to overwrite the AB
fun <- function(input){
if(missing(input)){
# No assignment: variable is being called on its own
# So, we activate the delayed assignment call:
res <- eval(call,p_frame)
rm(list=var_str,envir=p_frame)
assign(var_str,res,p_frame)
res
} else if(!inherits(input,"assign_delay") &&
input != var_rand){
# Attempting to assign to the variable
# and it is not the initial definition
# So we overwrite the active binding
res <- eval(substitute(input),p_frame)
rm(list=var_str,envir=p_frame)
assign(var_str,res,p_frame)
invisible(res)
}
# Else: We are assigning and the assignee is the output
# of this function, in which case, we do nothing!
}
#Fix the call in the above eval to be the exact call
# rather than a variable (useful for debugging)
# This is in the line res <- eval(call,p_frame)
body(fun)[[c(2,3,2,3,2)]] <- substitute(call)
#Put the function inside the environment with all
# all of the variables above
environment(fun) <- var_env
# Check if the variable already exists in the calling
# environment and if so, remove it
if(exists(var_str,envir=p_frame)){
rm(list=var_str,envir=p_frame)
}
# Create the AB
makeActiveBinding(var_sym,fun,p_frame)
# Return a specific object to check for
structure(var_rand,call="assign_delay")
}

R remove objects without throwing an error if they don't exist

Within a loop, I try to remove a list of data frames simply with
rm(a,b,c,d)
However, in case an data-frame (e.g. b) does not exist in the global environment, I get a warning
In rm(a,b,c,d,...:
object 'b' not found
How can I suppress this warning to not pop-up?
Use suppressWarnings
suppressWarnings(rm(a,b,c,d))
#RonakShah has the correct answer here, though it is possible to avoid generating a warning at all by defining a function that checks for the existence of variables before trying to remove them:
rm2 <- function(...)
{
names <- sapply(as.list(match.call()[-1]), deparse);
rm(list = names[sapply(names, exists)], envir = parent.frame())
}
So you can do:
x <- 1; y <- 2;
ls()
#> [1] "rm2" "x" "y"
rm2(x, y, z) # Note no warning generated since no attempt made to remove z
ls()
[1] "rm2"

how to remove a variable from inside a function in R

i am trying to create a function in which i want to remove one of the variables passed to it.
now R works in annoying ways in that it copies the object instead of giving a reference.
(technically the copying only happens if you make a change... but meh...)
a=function(b){
rm(b)
# rm(b)
}
test=123
a(test) # will remove b, not test
# you can verify that by adding the 2nd rm(b)
i tried
a=function(b){
rm(match.call()[[2]])
}
but that gives the error:
Error in rm(match.call()[[3]]) :
... must contain names or character strings
Try this:
Foo <- function(x){
Sx <- deparse(substitute(x))
rm(list=Sx,envir=sys.frame(-1))
}
##
Z <- 123
ls()
##
[1] "Foo" "Z"
##
Foo(x=Z)
ls()
[1] "Foo"
similar to nrussell's answer, here's the line from cgwtools::askrm which does an arbitrary function call on the selected object:
call(fn, as.name(thenam)), envir = parent.frame(1))
(and, yes, I'm plugging my own toolkit here :-) )

Is it possible to modify an object on a list in a parent frame in R?

I'm working on an R package that has a number of functions that follow a non-R-standard practice of modifying in place the object passed in as an argument. This normally works OK, but fails when the object to be modified is on a list.
An function to give an example of the form of the assignments:
myFun<-function(x){
xn <- deparse(substitute(x))
ev <- parent.frame()
# would do real stuff here ..
# instead set simple value to modify local copy
x[[1]]<-"b"
# assign in parent frame
if (exists(xn, envir = ev))
on.exit(assign(xn, x, pos = ev))
# return invisibly
invisible(x)
}
This works:
> myObj <-list("a")
> myFun(myObj)
> myObj
[[1]]
[1] "b"
But it does not work if the object is a member of a list:
> myObj <-list("a")
> myList<-list(myObj,myObj)
> myFun(myList[[1]])
> myList
[[1]]
[[1]][[1]]
[1] "a"
[[2]]
[[2]][[1]]
[1] "a"
After reading answers to other questions here, I see the docs for assign clearly state:
assign does not dispatch assignment methods, so it cannot be used to set elements of vectors, names, attributes, etc.
Since there is an existing codebase using these functions, we cannot abandon the modify-in-place syntax. Does anyone have suggestions for workarounds or alternative approaches for modifying objects which are members of a list in a parent frame?
UPDATE:
I've considered trying to roll my own assignment function, something like:
assignToListInEnv<-function(name,env,value){
# assume name is something like "myList[[1]]"
#check for brackets
index<-regexpr('[[',name,fixed=TRUE)[1]
if(index>0){
lname<-substr(name,0,index-1)
#check that it exists
if (exists(lname,where=env)){
target<-get(lname,pos=env)
# make sure it is a list
if (is.list(target)){
eval(parse(text=paste('target',substr(name,index,999),'<-value',sep='')))
assign(lname, target, pos = env)
} else {
stop('object ',lname,' is not a list in environment ',env)
}
} else {
stop('unable to locate object ',lname,' in frame ',env)
}
}
}
But it seems horrible brittle, would need to handle many more cases ($ and [ as well as [[) and would probably still fail for [[x]] because x would be evaluated in the wrong frame...
Since it was in the first search results to my query, here's my solution :
You can use paste() with "<<-" to create an expression which will assign the value to your list element when evaluated.
assignToListInEnv<-function(name, value, env = parent.frame()){
cl <- as.list(match.call())
lang <- str2lang(paste(cl["name"], "<<-", cl["value"]))
eval(lang, envir = env)
}
EDIT : revisiting this answer because it got a vote up
I'm not sure why I used <<- instead of <-. If using the 'env' argument, <<-with assign to the parent.frame of that env.
So if you always want it to be the first parent.frame it can just be :
assignToListInParentFrame<-function(name, value){
cl <- as.list(match.call())
paste(cl["name"], "<<-", cl["value"]) |>
str2lang() |>
eval()
}
and if you want to precise in which env to modify the list :
assignToListInEnv<-function(name, value, env){
cl <- as.list(match.call())
paste(cl["name"], "<-", cl["value"]) |>
str2lang() |>
eval(envir = env)
}

Create a list of functions from a vector of characters

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this question has been answered previously - I have looked pretty extensively. I have a dataset containing a row of with concatenated information, specifically: name,color code,some function expression. For example, one value may be:
cost#FF0033#log(x)+6.
I have all of the code to extract the information, and I end up with a vector of expressions that I would like to convert to a list of actual functions.
For example:
func.list <- list()
test.func <- c("x","x+1","x+2","x+3","x+4")
where test.func is the vector of expressions. What I would like is:
func.list[[3]]
To be equivalent to
function(x){x+3}
I know that I can create a function using:
somefunc <- function(x){eval(parse(text="x+1"))}
to convert a character value into a function. The problem comes when I try and loop through to make multiple functions. For an example of something I tried that didn't work:
for(i in 1:length(test.func)){
temp <- test.func[i]
f <- assign(function(x){eval(expr=parse(text=temp))})
func.list[[i]] <- f
}
Based on another post (http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3836/how-to-create-a-vector-of-functions) I also tried this:
makefunc <- function(y){y;function(x){y}}
for(i in 1:length(test.func)){
func.list[[i]] <- assign(x=paste("f",i,sep=""),value=makefunc(eval(parse(text=test.func[i]))))
}
Which gives the following error: Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos) : object 'x' not found
The eventual goal is to take the list of functions and apply the jth function to the jth column of the data.frame, so that the user of the script can specify how to normalize each column within the concatenated information given by the column header.
Maybe initialize your list with a single generic function, and then update them using:
foo <- function(x){x+3}
> body(foo) <- quote(x+4)
> foo
function (x)
x + 4
More specifically, starting from a character, you'd probably do something like:
body(foo) <- parse(text = "x+5")
Just to add onto joran's answer, this is what finally worked:
test.data <- matrix(data=rep(1,25),5,5)
test.data <- data.frame(test.data)
test.func <- c("x","x+1","x+2","x+3","x+4")
func.list <- list()
for(i in 1:length(test.func)){
func.list[[i]] <- function(x){}
body(func.list[[i]]) <- parse(text=test.func[i])
}
processed <- mapply(do.call,func.list,lapply(test.data,list))
Thanks again, joran.
This is what I do:
f <- list(identity="x",plus1 = "x+1", square= "x^2")
funCreator <- function(snippet){
txt <- snippet
function(x){
exprs <- parse(text = txt)
eval(exprs)
}
}
listOfFunctions <- lapply(setNames(f,names(f)),function(x){funCreator(x)}) # I like to have some control of the names of the functions
listOfFunctions[[1]] # try to see what the actual function looks like?
library(pryr)
unenclose(listOfFunctions[[3]]) # good way to see the actual function http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Functional-programming.html
# Call your funcions
listOfFunctions[[2]](3) # 3+1 = 4
do.call(listOfFunctions[[3]],list(3)) # 3^2 = 9
attach(listOfFunctions) # you can also attach your list of functions and call them by name
square(3) # 3^2 = 9
identity(7) # 7 ## masked object identity, better detach it now!
detach(listOfFunctions)

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