data.frame(...) not constructing "1:n" row.names [diff. S <--> R]

[Peter Dalgaard BSA]

Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch> writes:

> 
> 	[I think Doug Bates has already alluded to this, somewhere..]
> 
> In R, 	data.frame( ... )
> 
> does not construct row.names whereas in S, it does:
...
> R core: Is there a good reason for this?

No.
 
> Well (as a member of R-core, I give my answer):
> 
> 	Memory efficiency can be a good reason, actually...
> 	together with ``cleanness'' :  
> 		``1:n'' are the IMPLICIT DEFAULT row.names
> 
> We could stay at the current way `internally',
> but make sure that all functions working on data.frames `d.f'
> automatically work as if
> 
> 	 row.names(d.f)   *was indeed* ==  paste(1:nrow(d.f)

Ugh. Please, let's avoid implicit stuff. All the special-casing
involved all over the place would soon outweigh the saved storage of a
character vector. We'll get nothing but trouble from it. Just add the
rownames. 

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard@biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907

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