[R] Risks of using "function <- package::function" ?

[Eric Berger]

As Jeff recommends, I use the pkg::fun for clarity.
However I probably use it more than needed (e.g. I use the dplyr:: prefix
on all dplyr function calls instead of just the functions with name
collisions).
Are there any tools that can be used (like a form of lint) to identify uses
of functions without the pkg:: prefix and which are part of a name
collision?
One could then edit the code to include the pkg:: prefix to disambiguate
those cases and verify via a repeated use of such a tool that there are no
outstanding cases.

Or alternative approaches to the issue?

Thanks,
Eric


On Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 9:30 AM, Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>
wrote:

> Obvious?  How about "obscurity"? Just directly use pkg::fun if you have
> name collision.
> --
> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
>
> On November 16, 2017 4:46:15 PM PST, Duncan Murdoch <
> murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> >On 16/11/2017 4:53 PM, Boris Steipe wrote:
> >> Large packages sometimes mask each other's functions and that creates
> >a headache, especially for teaching code, since function signatures may
> >depend on which order packages were loaded in. One of my students
> >proposed using the idiom
> >>
> >>    <function> <- <package>::<function>
> >>
> >> ... in a preamble, when we use just a small subset of functions from
> >a larger package. I like that idea and can't see obvious
> >disadvantages(1).
> >>
> >> Are there subtle risks to that approach?
> >
> >You might do it twice.  R isn't going to complain if you have
> >
> >filter <- stats::filter
> >
> ># some other code here...
> >
> >filter <- dplyr::filter
> >
> >in your code, but the second one will overwrite the first one.
> >
> >The normal way to handle this is in the NAMESPACE file, where you
> >should
> >have
> >
> >importFrom(stats, filter)
> >
> >If you then have
> >
> >importFrom(dplyr, filter)
> >
> >you should get an warning:
> >
> >Warning: replacing previous import ‘stats::filter’ by ‘dplyr::filter’
> >when loading ‘testpkg’.
> >
> >Duncan Murdoch
> >
> >______________________________________________
> >R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> >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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.
>

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