[Rd] Suggestion: mkString(NULL) should be NA

[William Dunlap]

Why should Rf_mkString(NULL) produce NA_STRING instead of ""
(R_BlankString)?  I prefer that passing in a nil pointer would cause
an error instead, as the nil may arise by accident, perhaps a pointer
to freed memory, and I would like to be notified that my code is bad instead
of getting a random NA_STRING.


Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 8:42 AM, Jeroen Ooms <jeroen.ooms at stat.ucla.edu>
wrote:

> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Jeroen Ooms <jeroen.ooms at stat.ucla.edu>
> wrote:
> > I would like to propose that Rf_mkString(NULL) and Rf_mkChar(NULL)
> > return NA rather than segfault.
>
> An example implementation: https://git.io/vroxm
>
> With this patch, mkChar(NULL), mkCharCE(NULL, ce) would return
> NA_STRING rather than segfault at strlen(NULL). This automatically
> fixes mkString(NULL) as well which wraps mkChar (See Rinlinedfuns.h).
>
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