[R] use of apply in a data frame on a row by row basis

[Liaw, Andy]

?apply has the answer, in particular, in the "Detail" section:

  If X is not an array but has a dimension attribute, apply attempts
  to coerce it to an array via as.matrix if it is two-dimensional 
  (e.g., data frames) or via as.array. 

Thus the function being apply()'ed  should not be expecting a 1-row
data frame.  Instead, it should be expecting a vector.

Andy 

From: Julien Laugel
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm trying to use the apply function on a data frame, by 
> applying a function that takes a one row data.frame as argument .
> 
> Here's the example :
> myfun = function(x) paste(x$f1 , x$f2)
> df = data.frame(f1 = c(1,4,10),f2 = "hello")
> 
> apply(df,1,myfun) ==> Does not work (I get "character(0)" )
> 
> Though : myfun(df[1,]) works,
> and myfun(df) works as well.
> 
> So if myfun(df) works, that's fine!
> BUT, if the output of the function a bit more complex, it 
> does not work :
> In this case I'm using a timeSeries object (from Rmetrics)
> 
> library(fMultivar)
> timerange = timeSequence(from = "2001-04-11", length.out = 
> 3,by = "weeks", format = "%Y-%m-%d", FinCenter = "GMT")
> myfun2 = function(x) timeSeries(rnorm(3),timerange)
> 
> In this case, myfun2(df) returns only the result of the 1st row!
> BUT
> apply(df,1,myfun2) in this case, does work
> 
> But I haven't used the "$" notation to access one field Now 
> if I try (and that is the cas that bugs me currently) :
> 
> myfun3 = function(x) timeSeries(rep(x$f1,3),timerange)
> 
> myfun3(df)
> Error in "rownames<-"(`*tmp*`, value = c("2001-04-11 
> 02:00:00", "2001-04-18 02:00:00", :
> length of 'dimnames' [1] is not equal to range of the array 
> (sorry for the translation : I'm using a french version of R) Though
> > myfun3(df[1,])
> TS.1
> 2001-04-11 02:00:00 1
> 2001-04-18 02:00:00 1
> 2001-04-25 02:00:00 1
> works well
> BUT :
> apply(df,1,myfun3)
> yields :
> 
> Error in array(x, c(length(x), 1), if (!is.null(names(x))) 
> list(names(x), :
> trying to change an attribute in NULL
> 
> So as a result I'm verry annoyed, and I don't see the logic behind.
> How can I do to make a apply-like function on the latter 
> function? (myfun3)
> 
> Many thanks in advance
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Roolio
> 
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