see inline
On 05/07/2013 02:14 AM, Keith S Weintraub wrote:
Folks,
I have been working on an R project that has a few dozen functions.
I have some questions that are only tangentially related and might only be a
difference in style.
1. Some of my functions take single-row data.frames as input parameters lists.
I don't force the user of the function to provide all of the parameters. I use
code within a function to test if a particular parameter (column-name) exists
in the data.frame and if so use the value of that parameter in a test. If the
parameter doesn't exist in the data.frame then some default behavior applies
like so:
if("rollDown" %in% names(runParams)) rollDown<-runParams[["rollDown"]]
else rollDown<-0
Is this good style? What are the pitfalls? Is there a better way?
Whether it is good style or not, you must have been reading my mind.
This is more or less what I am working on to streamline the increasing
number of arguments in functions in some of the packages I maintain. At
the moment I am trying to work out whether it is easier to have one big
function to complete all the arguments or a set of smaller functions for
related groups of arguments.
One nice thing about this method is that if I need to add a new parameter I
don't have to change the signature of the function.
2. What is a good way to organize a project with dozens of functions in R?
Creating a package is an easy and well documented way of
1) keeping all the functions together
2) checking that everything works
3) maintaining a record of the evolution of the project
Even a handful of functions can benefit from packaging.
3. My project involves a fair amount of simulation. I am not talking hours but some of my
"runs" take up to 30 minutes.
Suppose I have a "control" function that calls a number of other functions that
might benefit from compilation (using the compiler package). Is it better to compile the
called functions inside or outside the control function?
Is there a good "idiom" or standardized way of turning compilation of the
called functions on and off? What about debugging (I use the debug package)?
I am perfectly happy with pointers to articles, books and code.
Jim
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