[R] is it safe to replace every "<-" by "=" in R code?

[Richard M. Heiberger]

Most R users believe that there is a clear distinction between " <- " and
"=".
Gabor's example is a wonderful illustration of that distinction.
Most users recommend " <- " for assignment for greater clarity and
readability.
The important characteristic for readability is the space on both sides of
the
assignment arrow.  Without spacing for human legibility anything will look
bad.

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
Behalf Of Gabor Grothendieck
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 05:50 PM
To: Nasser Abbasi
Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [R] is it safe to replace every "<-" by "=" in R code?

No.

> f <- function(a = 3, b = 4) a-b
> f(b = 10)
[1] -7
> f(b <- 10)
[1] 6

but if you only replace it in the context:

x <- ...

then it should be ok.

On Jan 13, 2008 5:41 PM, Nasser Abbasi <nma at 12000.org> wrote:
> hi;
>
> When I first started looking at R code, I thought that the <- notation for
> assignment made the code less readable (and I still do).  Then I found
that
> now one can use "=" in place of "<-" for assignment (I understand this
> started since version 1.4). Anyway, I think using "=" makes the code much
> more readable.
>
> I was wondering, would it be safe if I replace all the occurrences of "<-"
> by "=" in any function of R? Or do you think this will break things?
>
> I like to look at a pretty code, and I just can't stand looking at those
> "<-" any more :)
>
> I am using latest version of R on windoz platform.
>
> thanks
> Nasser
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.