[Rd] stringsAsFactors

[Henrik Bengtsson]

While at it, would it be worth mentioning in the NEWS for R 4.0.0 that
options 'stringsAsFactors' is being deprecated, e.g.

$ options(stringsAsFactors = TRUE)
Warning message:
In options(stringsAsFactors = TRUE) :
  'options(stringsAsFactors = TRUE)' is deprecated and will be disabled

?  Currently, the news only says:

* R now uses a stringsAsFactors = FALSE default, and hence by default
no longer converts strings to factors in calls to data.frame() and
read.table().

/Henrik

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 5:23 AM Martin Maechler
<maechler using stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>
> >>>>> Hugh Parsonage
> >>>>>     on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 21:20:26 +1000 writes:
>
>     > Further, in addition to the `val <- FALSE` patch a few hours ago by
>     > Martin, the line after should also be changed
>
>     > - if(!is.logical(val) || is.na(val) || length(val) != 1L)
>     > + if(!is.logical(val) || length(val) != 1L || is.na(val))
>
>     > ## Consider
>     > Sys.setenv("_R_CHECK_LENGTH_1_LOGIC2_" = "TRUE")
>     > options(stringsAsFactors = c(TRUE, FALSE))
>
> In R-devel and R 4.0.0 alpha/beta, you have
>
> > options(stringsAsFactors = c(TRUE, FALSE))
> Error in options(stringsAsFactors = c(TRUE, FALSE)) :
>   invalid value for 'stringsAsFactors'
>
>
>     > default.stringsAsFactors()  # correct error message
>
> Note that the default.stringsAsFactors() function is also
> deprecated, of course.  Not "formally", in the sense that its
> use would give a deprecation warning  {which would be *bad* as
>   it's still used for the default argument e.g. of read.table()},
> but the help page (in R-devel and R 4.0.0 "pre-release")
> has been saying for a while now
>
> 1)
>
> Usage:
>
>      data.frame(  ......... )
>
>      default.stringsAsFactors() # << this is deprecated !
>                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> and 2)   in  'Details:'
>
>      default.stringsAsFactors is a utility ............
>      ........... ............  This function is *deprecated* now and will
>      no longer be available in the future.
>
>
> and so it'd be a waste to change it unnecessarily.
> Martin
>
>     > On Mon, 13 Apr 2020 at 18:02, Martin Maechler
>     > <maechler using stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>     >>
>     >> >>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>     >> >>>>>     on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 08:57:14 -0400 writes:
>     >>
>     >> > The NEWS for R 4.0.0 says "R now uses a stringsAsFactors = FALSE
>     >> > default, and hence by default no longer converts strings to factors in
>     >> > calls to data.frame() and read.table()."
>     >>
>     >> > This seems to have been implemented by setting options(stringsAsFactors
>     >> > = FALSE) in the main R profile.  However, setting
>     >>
>     >> > options(stringsAsFactors = NULL)
>     >>
>     >> > reverts to the same behavior as the old options(stringsAsFactors =
>     >> > TRUE).  Is this intentional?
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> No!  Thanks a lot for testing R 4.0.0 alpha/beta, noticing and
>     >> alerting us about it.
>     >>
>     >> This will be changed ASAP.
>     >>
>     >> ... and it will benefit the whole R user community if quite a
>     >> few good R users (as most readers of 'R-devel') would start
>     >> using 'R 4.0.0 beta' routinely now --- thanks a lot in advance!
>     >>
>     >> Martin
>     >>
>     >> ______________________________________________
>     >> R-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>     >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
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