[R] Error creating named character vectors from column names in data frame.

[David Winsemius]

> On Oct 7, 2016, at 10:44 AM, Jorge Cimentada <cimentadaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bert,
> 
> Yes, I'm aware of the difference between a and "a" but in terms of object
> classes I don't see the difference between "a" and names(mtcars)[1].
> They're both strings.

They are not both "strings". One is a character value and the other is an expression that requires two different function evaluations. Inside the call to `c()`, the expressions on either side of an "="-sign are handled differently than they are outside a matching set of function parentheses. I _think_ they are parsed as 'alists', and teh which the ?alist page says the alist()-function does not evaluate the LHS of a pair being formed by the "="-operator. I was, however, not able to find descriptions of this in either The R Language Definition or R Internals.

I see Duncan has pointed out that "a" is converted to an R symbol/name as a "courtesy". There is some irony in the fact that the `names` function does not return R names, which are language objects with mode name.


-- 
David

> However, for creating a named character vector, this
> works:
> 
> c("a" = "b)
> 
> But this doesn't
> 
> c(names(mtcars)[1] = "b")

> For example:
> 
> df <- data.frame("a" = 1:5)
> c("a" = "b")
> c(names(df)[1] = "b") # error
> 
> But
> 
> identical(names(df)[1], "a")
> 

The `identical` function evaluates both its arguments.


> That was my initial question.
> 
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> 
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David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA