>>>>> "RT" == Rolf Turner <r.tur...@auckland.ac.nz>
>>>>> on Tue, 19 May 2009 11:02:08 +1200 writes:
RT> On 19/05/2009, at 10:20 AM, Steve Lianoglou wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've (tried) to look through the bug tracker, and gmane-search the
>> R list to
>> see if this has been mentioned before, and it looks like it hasn't.
>>
>> According to the R 2.9.0 release notes[1], the expand.grid function
>> should now
>> take a stringsAsFactor=LOGICAL argument which controls whether or
>> not the
>> function coerces strings as factors. While the parameter is indeed
>> in the
>> function, a quick examination of the function's source shows that
>> the value
>> of this argument is never checked, and all strings are converted to
>> factors
>> as a matter of course.
>>
>> The fix is pretty easy, and I believe only requires changing the
>> `if` check
>> here:
>>
>> if (!is.factor(x) && is.character(x))
>> x <- factor(x, levels = unique(x))
>>
>> To:
>>
>> if (!is.factor(x) && is.character(x) && stringsAsFactors)
>> x <- factor(x, levels = unique(x))
>>
>> I can open a ticket regarding this issue and add this there if
>> necessary.
Thank you, but it's not necessary anymore; we (R Core Team)
have already opened a ticket...
>> Thanks,
>> -steve
>>
>> [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.r.general/146891
RT> While we're at it --- would it not make sense to have the
RT> stringsAsFactors
RT> argument (once it's working) of expand.grid() default to options()
RT> $stringsAsFactors,
RT> rather than to FALSE?
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!
RT> This would make no difference to me personally, since I set
RT> options(stringsAsFactors=FALSE) in my .Rprofile. But it might make some
RT> people happier ....
As I have said several times (on R-devel rather than R-help),
I strongly believe that the introduction of such an option has
been one of very few very bad choices we (the R core team) have
made in the recent past.
Setting an option should *never* influence (basic) R
computational functionality; options() typically should only
influence print()ing, maybe plotting() and similar I/O.
I still hope that I'll find the stamina in the not so distant
future to convince a majority within R-core to abolish this
abominational option, of course with transitional help for the
stringsAsFactors_=_FALSE junkies.
Martin Maechler
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