I think the function below will tell you all the names that are in scope at the point where it is called. You can then make up something that's not in the list. Duncan Murdoch all.names <- function() { env <- new.env(parent=parent.frame()) result <- ls(env=env) while (!is.null(env)) { env <- parent.env(env) result <- c(result, ls(env=env)) } sort(unique(result)) }