[R] Reference to dataframe and contents

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 2/4/2007 3:42 PM, Rene Braeckman wrote:
> This is probably easy for experienced users but I could not find a solution.
>  
> I have several R scripts that process several columns of a dataframe
> (several dataframes and columns actually, but simplified for my question).
> 
> References such as:
>  
> myDF$myCol
>  
> are all over. I like to automate this for other dataframes and columns by
> defining a reference only once in the beginning of the script.
> 
> One idea is to use strings:
> 
> s1 <- "myDF"
> S2 <- "myCol"
> 
> My question is how to construct the equivalent of myDF$myCol that can be
> used as such. Or is there a better solution?

I'd pass myDF and the name of the column as a parameters to the 
function, e.g.

myfun <- function( DF, column ) {
   do something now with DF[, column]
}

then call it as

myfun(myDF, "myCol")

Duncan Murdoch

> Thanks. The help and discussions on this forum are the best.
> Rene
> -----------------------------------------
> Rene Braeckman, PhD
> Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics
> Irvine, California, USA
> 
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