[R] sub-function default arguments

[Talbot Katz]

Hi.

I have defined a function, f1, that calls another function, f2.  Inside f1 
an intermediate variable called nm1 is created; it is a matrix.  f2 takes a 
matrix argument, and I defined f2 (schematically) as follows:

f2<-function(nmArg1=nm1,...){nC<-ncol(nmArg1); ... }

so that it expects nm1 as the default value of its argument.  f1 is defined 
(schematically) as:

f1<-function(...){result1<-f2(); ... }

When I ran f1 I got the following error message:

Error in ncol(nmArg1) : object "nm1" not found.

If I redefine f1 schematically as:

f1<-function(...){result1<-f2(nmArg1=nm1); ... }

it runs okay.  If I have nm1 defined outside of f1 and I run "result1<-f2()" 
it also runs okay.  So f2 doesn't seem to pick up the default argument value 
inside the function f1, even when the default argument is defined inside f1. 
  Is there a way to have the subfunction default arguments recognized inside 
of a function (perhaps a better protocol for using defaults than what I 
did?), or do I just have to spell them out explicitly?

Thanks!

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