When merging DFrame instances, the *List types are lost:
The following two instances have NumericList columns (y and z)
d1 <- DataFrame(x = letters[1:3], y = List(list(1, 1:2, 1:3)))
d2 <- DataFrame(x = letters[1:3], z = List(list(1:3, 1:2, 1)))
d1
## DataFrame with 3 rows and 2 columns
## x y
## <character> <NumericList>
## 1 a 1
## 2 b 1,2
## 3 c 1,2,3
That are however converted to list when merged
merge(d1, d2, by = "x")
## DataFrame with 3 rows and 3 columns
## x y z
## <character> <list> <list>
## 1 a 1 1,2,3
## 2 b 1,2 1,2
## 3 c 1,2,3 1
Looking at merge,DataTable,DataTable (form with merge,DFrame,DFrame inherits),
this makes sense given that they are converted to data.frames, merged with
merge,data.frame,data.frame and the results is coerced back to DFrame:
> getMethod("merge", c("DataTable", "DataTable"))
Method Definition:
function (x, y, ...)
{
.local <- function (x, y, by, ...)
{
if (is(by, "Hits")) {
return(.mergeByHits(x, y, by, ...))
}
as(merge(as(x, "data.frame"), as(y, "data.frame"), by,
...), class(x))
}
.local(x, y, ...)
}
<bytecode: 0x556dd0032ca8>
<environment: namespace:S4Vectors>
Signatures:
x y
target "DataTable" "DataTable"
defined "DataTable" "DataTable"
I would like not to loose the *List classes in the individual DFrames.
Am I missing something? Is this something that is on the todo list, or that I
could help with?
Best wishes,
Laurent
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