As long as you know what you are doing, and watch out carefully, then you
can do it.  BTW, I do exactly what you are saying about manipulating large
data objects.  I will use the 'indices' in functions like 'lapply' and in
the body of the function reference that data that is held in the global
object.  Very seldom, I will change data with the "<<-", but that is usually
after I have exhausted some other approaches. Globals, and 'gotos' are a
necessary evil, but I have learned how to write programs with goto's after a
lot of effort.

On 4/2/07, Alberto Monteiro <albmont@centroin.com.br> wrote:
>
>
> Jim Holtman wrote:
> >
> > The following will work, but I would suggest that you redesign your
> > functions so that they do not use 'globals';  It is not nice for
> functions
> > to have side-effects.
> >
> Globals are Evil, but, like goto, sometimes they can make a big
> program become simpler. I don't see a nice alternative to globals
> when I have a huge database where a lot of different functions
> read and write.
>
> But maybe this is ideology/religion/politics...
>
> Alberto Monteiro
>
>


-- 
Jim Holtman
Cincinnati, OH
+1 513 646 9390

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

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