[R] about the char _

[Laurent Gautier]

I do not want to pour oil on fire (see the "S-Plus != R" earlier this
week).
(I am writing in peace. =)  )



I do not see the 'underscore' thing as a _major_ issue.



If one really really really want to have underscores, one still can:


> "underscore_if_I_want" <- 2
> get("underscore_if_I_want")
[1] 2





Regards,




Laurent







Philippe Grosjean wrote:
> 
> >Dear all,
> 
> >I don't know the historical reason why the char '_' was
> >defined in the R language grammar as a synonyme of the
> >assignment <-, anyway the R documentation dosen't recommand
> >its usage.
> 
> >Well, this is a real "incompatibility issue" each time
> >we need to interface R with other language/systems, notably with
> >database systems. Recall that, in perhaps all computer systems,
> >the char '_' can be used in the name of a variable or a column
> >in a data table.
> 
> >So that's my question : is there an option to change this
> >behaviour ?
> 
> >All that I want is the possibility to use the same name of
> >variables in my R source as they are declared in the other systems.
> 
> >Thanks
> >--
> >Fan
> 
> I totally agree with this. Since _ is a deprecated synonym of <-, is it any
> possibility to eliminate it in one of the next major versions of R?
> Therefore, a variable name like my_variable would become viable... like in
> most other computer languages. What I really appreciate in R synthax is that
> there is almost no ambiguities. I mean, in R, a word has only one
> signification. For instance <- is assignation, = gives a value to an
> argument in a function and == is for comparison, where some other languages
> use the same = in the different situations. As far as I know, there are only
> two cases where the same word (or character) can be used in two different
> situations:
> 1) A function, and an argument in a function can both have the same name,
> i.e., myfunction <- function(myfunction="value", arg2,...) {} is viable;
> 2) The dot is used both in variable names and to represent the object
> hierarchy: my.var and print.myvar. The first dot is part of the variable
> name, while the second dot separate the method (print) and the variable
> (myvar). If _ was allowed in variables names, we could use print.my_var
> (which should, perhaps, be recommended) and it would be easier to spot where
> is the "object hierarchy" and where is the variable name.
> Best,
> 
> Philippe Grosjean
> 
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-- 
Laurent Gautier			CBS, Building 208, DTU
PhD. Student			D-2800 Lyngby,Denmark	
tel: +45 45 25 24 85		http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/laurent
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