[R] as.character and a formula

[Prof Brian Ripley]

I guess the problem is that Gavin is unaware of what [[]] does for a call.
It is still a call and so you want to use deparse() and not 
as.character():

> deparse(fmla[[3]])
[1] "spp1 + spp2 + spp3 + spp5"

Watch out for the line length limit on deparse() if you do this in 
programs.

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, Uwe Ligges wrote:

> Gavin Simpson wrote:
>
>> Dear list,
>>
>> given this formula:
>>
>>
>>> fmla <- formula(y1 ~ spp1 + spp2 + spp3 + spp5)
>>> fmla[[3]]
>>
>> spp1 + spp2 + spp3 + spp5
>>
>> is this the intended behaviour of as.character:
>>
>>
>>> as.character(fmla[[3]])
>>
>> [1] "+"                  "spp1 + spp2 + spp3" "spp5"
>>
>> ? Where does the extra "+" come from?
>
> Which *extra* "+"?
>
> This expression is the same as
>
> "+"(spp1 + spp2 + spp3, spp5)
>
> hence "+" with arguments "spp1 + spp2 + spp3" and "spp5"
>
> Same below.
>
> Uwe Ligges
>
>
>>
>>> as.character(fmla)
>>
>> [1] "~"                         "y1"
>> [3] "spp1 + spp2 + spp3 + spp5"
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Gav
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
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