[R-pkg-devel] A function in one of my package is now a method in base R

[Shu Fai Cheung]

Hi All,

I have a function (not a method), sort_by(), in one of my packages. A
new method with the same name was introduced in the recent versions of
R (4.4.0 or 4.4.1, I forgot which one), resulting in potential
conflict in users' code.

Certainly, users can simply use pkg_name::function_name() to solve the
conflict. However, I would like to be consistent with base R and so I
am thinking about converting my function to a method for the class for
which my function is intended to work on (e.g, est_table).

However, my function has arguments different from those in the base R sort_by():

Base R:

sort_by(x, y, ...)

My function:

sort_by(
  object,
  by = c("op", "lhs", "rhs"),
  op_priority = c("=~", "~", "~~", ":=", "~1", "|", "~*~"),
  number_rows = TRUE
)

If I write the function sort_by.est_table(), I would need to match the
argument names of the base R sort_by(). However, I think it is a bad
idea to rename the arguments in my function and it will break existing
code.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Is keeping my function as-is
a better option? Name conflict is not unusual across packages and so
users need to learn how to solve this problem anyway. Nevertheless, if
possible, I would like to solve the conflict internally such that
users do not need to do anything.

Regards,
Shu Fai Cheung