I am writing a custom function that uses an R-function from the
reshape package: cast. However, my question could be applicable to
any R function.
Normally one writes the arguments directly into a function, e.g.:
result=cast(table1, column1 + column2 + column3 ~ column4,
mean) (1)
I need to be able to write this statement as follows:
result=cast(table1, string_with_columns ~ column4, mean) (2)
string_with_columns = group of functions that ultimately outputs:
"column1 + column2 + column3"
Statement 1 outputs the correct results because I have manually typed
in the column names I want to use. However, statement 2 thinks that
'string' is the name of a column rather than knowing to paste the
string in string.
OR
To phrase this problem in a more generic manner, here is an example
using a simpler function:
first=4
second=6
third="first,second"
max(first,second) //correctly outputs 6
max(third) //outputs "first,second" because it doesn't know to paste
in the variables first and second, how do I get R to do this?
Any help is appreciated.
Lori Simpson
703.760.8575
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