[Rd] error in make.names docs (PR#6912)
mmiller3 at iupui.edu
mmiller3 at iupui.edu
Mon May 24 17:58:22 CEST 2004
Full_Name: Mike Miller
Version: 1.9.0
OS: win2000
Submission from: (NULL) (134.68.121.109)
The docs for make.names imply that the result of
make.names(c("a and b", "a_and_b"), unique=TRUE)
should be
"a.and.b" "a.and.b.1"
when it is actually
"a.and.b" "a_and_b"
The docs do not reflect this very major change in behavior from 1.8.x to 1.9.0.
This change causes numerous R codes to fail in senarios like the following.
Suppose I have a data file, example.dat, like this:
a b x some_factor
1 1 0.4 orange
2 1 0.3 blue
1 1 0.2 dog
2 1 0.1 orange
1 2 0.4 blue
2 2 0.3 dog
1 2 0.2 orange
2 2 0.1 blue
To read and use this in a version independent way, I've tried to write
version-aware code, but this is difficult as '_' is not syntactically valid
prior to R 1.9.0. If it were, the following code might work. Of course, if '_'
were allowed, this issue would not be be a problem.
df <- read.table('example.dat',header=T)
if ( version['minor'] == "9.0" ) {
plot(x ~ some_factor, data=df)
} else {
plot(x ~ some.factor, data=df)
}
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