Use ifelse() rather than if () {} else {}. It's vectorized and very useful for applying to elements along vectors. The latter idiom is much better for control of flow in programs and functions.
folds <- function (x, y) ifelse(x-y >= 0, 2^(x-y), -(2^abs(x-y))) z <- folds(x, y) > z [1] 16 1 4 4 -4 4 -256 > ?function works for me. Here's my setup: R version 2.7.0 (2008-04-22) x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Cheers, Simon. On Tue, 2008-06-03 at 20:47 -0500, ALAN SMITH wrote: > Hello R users and developers, > I am trying to write several functions (fairly new at this) in order > to avoid using loops on large data frames (because they are slow). I > wrote the function below and it seems to get hung on the first part of > the if statement and then applies that condition to rest of the > function. So if (x-y) is greater than 0 the function uses the true > statement for the calculations. Could someone please offer some > advise on how to write these functions a little better or a type > "apply" that I may use with two (or more) different vectors of data > required by a single functions. > ####################### Examples > ####################################################### > ## example 1 ### > x<-c(5,6,4,3,5,3,1) > y<-c(1,6,2,1,7,1,9) > folds<-function(x,y) (if((x-y)>=0) {2^(x-y)} else{-(2^abs(x-y))}) > z<-folds(x,y) > check<-cbind(x,y,z) > View(check) > > Warning message: > In if ((x - y) >= 0) { : > the condition has length > 1 and only the first element will be used > ### why will it only use the first element and how to I get around > this #### > > ## example 2 making the fist comparison negative ### > x1<-c(5,6,4,3,5,3,1) > y1<-c(11,6,2,1,7,1,9) > folds<-function(x,y) (if((x-y)>=0) {2^(x-y)} else{-(2^abs(x-y))}) > z1<-folds(x1,y1) > check2<-cbind(x1,y1,z1) > View(check2) > Warning message: > In if ((x - y) >= 0) { : > the condition has length > 1 and only the first element will be used > ################################################################################ > #### loop I am trying to avoid writing many many times ##### > folds2<-NULL > xy<-as.data.frame(cbind(x,y)) > for (i in 1:nrow(xy)) { > diff<-xy$x[i]-xy$y[i] > folds2[i]<-if(diff>=0) {2^diff} else{-(2^abs(diff))} > } > xyz<-cbind(xy,folds2) > View(xyz) > ################# > > Thank you, > Alan > > P.S. why does ?function not work > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. -- Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.