[Rd] warning or error upon type/storage mode coercion?
Benjamin Tyner
btyner at gmail.com
Wed Sep 15 03:23:25 CEST 2010
Hi,
I'm aware that the language definition states "R objects are often
coerced to different types during computations". Two questions:
1. Is it possible to configure the R environment so that, for example,
coercion from (say) numeric to integer will throw a warning or an error?
I realize that in the base R code alone, there are thousands of calls to
as.integer() which would trigger such an event, so this would not be a
very practical configuration...
2. So, assuming the answer to (1) is a resounding "no", does anyone care
to state an opinion regarding the philosophical or historical rationale
for why this is the case in R/S, whereas certain other interpreted
languages offer the option to perform strict type checking? Basically,
I'm trying to explain to someone from a perl background why the
(apparent) lack of a "use strict; use warnings;" equivalent is not a
hindrance to writing bullet-proof R code.
Thanks,
Ben
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