[Rd] sys.function(0)

[peter dalgaard]

> On 27 Mar 2016, at 22:05 , Mick Jordan <mick.jordan at oracle.com> wrote:
> 
> As I understand 
> https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/sys.parent.html
> sys.function(n) returns the function associated with stack frame n. 
> Since frame 0 is defined as .GlobalEnv which is not associated with a 
> function, I would expect this to always return NULL. However, it does not:
> 
>> sys.function()
> NULL
>> f <- function(x) sys.function(x)
>> f(0)
> function(x) sys.function(x)
>> f(1)
> function(x) sys.function(x)
>> f(2)
> Error in sys.function(x) : not that many frames on the stack
> 
> Why the different behavior when sys.function(0) is called inside another 
> function?

This is a documentation bug. The case "which = 0" differs between sys.frame() and sys.call()/sys.function(). For the latter, it means the current call/function, whereas sys.frame(0) is always the global envir. It is pretty clear from the underlying C code that the three functions treat their argument differently:

R_sysframe has

    if (n == 0)
        return(R_GlobalEnv);

    if (n > 0)
        n = framedepth(cptr) - n;
    else
        n = -n;

whereas the other two (R_syscall and R_sysfunction) omit the special treatment for n==0. Without this, n==0, comes out unchanged from the if-construct, indicating that one should go 0 frames up the stack (same as n==framedepth(cptr)).

Obviously, it won't work to document the "which" argument identically for all three functions...  

-pd


> 
> Mick Jordan
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
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