[R] how modify object in parent.env

[Vadim Ogranovich]

Thank you to Gabor and Mark Schwartz for the answers. Both of them
solved the problem I posted, but my actual problem, as I now see, is a
little bit more involved. Let me try again.

I have a vector 'x'. I want to compute its entries in a loop (yes, I
know...). Say

x = seq(3)

for (i in seq(length(x)) {
	x0 = someValue
	x[i] = x0
} 

There are two problems with the above code:
1. x0 pollutes the global envirnoment (not to mention possible
over-write of an existing x0). Therefore I thought I'd wrap it with
local().
2. x0 is not a good name from a readability perspective. I'd rather call
it x to emphasize it's an entry in an outer vector 'x'. (In this small
example it doesn't really matter, but I have much more involved scripts
where consistent naming is important)

Gabor's solution solves 1 but not 2. Maybe there is a simple way around
this restriction?

Thanks,
Vadim



> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Gabor 
> Grothendieck
> Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 4:06 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] how modify object in parent.env
> 
> 
> You can use "<<-" like this:
> 
> x <- 1:3
> local(x[1] <<- x[1]+1)
> 
> Vadim Ogranovich <vograno <at> evafunds.com> writes:
> 
> : 
> : Assign() re-binds the value, not modifies it (the latter is what I
> : needed)
> : 
> : > -----Original Message-----
> : > From: McGehee, Robert [mailto:Robert.McGehee <at> 
> geodecapital.com]
> : > Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 3:48 PM
> : > To: Vadim Ogranovich; r-help <at> stat.math.ethz.ch
> : > Subject: RE: [R] how modify object in parent.env
> : >
> : > This isn't an environment problem. Assigning something to a
> : > get call doesn't make any sense. Use assign.
> : >
> : > > a <- 5
> : > > get("a") <- 10
> : > Error: couldn't find function "get<-"
> : >
> : > And from the ?assign help page, you can pick what environment
> : > you want to make the assignment. Just pick the parent environment.
> : >
> : >
> : > -----Original Message-----
> : > From: Vadim Ogranovich [mailto:vograno <at> evafunds.com]
> : > Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 6:36 PM
> : > To: r-help <at> stat.math.ethz.ch
> : > Subject: [R] how modify object in parent.env
> : >
> : >
> : > Hi,
> : >
> : > Is it possible to modify an object in the parent.env (as 
> opposed to
> : > re-bind)? Here is what I tried:
> : >
> : > > x = 1:3
> : > # try to modify the first element of x from within a new 
> environment
> : > > local(get("x", parent.env(environment()))[1] <- NA)
> : > Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos) : Target of assignment 
> expands to
> : > non-language object
> : >
> : > # On the other hand retrieval works just fine
> : > > local(get("x", parent.env(environment()))[1])
> : > [1] 1
> : >
> : > Thanks,
> : > Vadim
> : >
> : > ______________________________________________
> : > R-help <at> stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> : > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> : > PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> : > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> : >
> : 
> : ______________________________________________
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