[R-SIG-Mac] R Workspace Browser filterable and sortable (pref by size)

[David Winsemius]

On May 26, 2011, at 11:44 AM, Timothy Bates wrote:

> Hi all,
> Fantastic that the revamped editor has variable finding (type  
> yourData$ then tab if you have not already)!!
>

I had not. That _is_ a nice surprise. It might be more user-friendly  
if logic could be installed that detects when the window is at the  
bottom of the screen (as I generally set up my display) because the  
scroll is currently only "drop-down" (which disappears) and it would  
be nice if it would "drop-up". Or perhaps a preference switch that  
could be "up" or "down"?


> I often find still, however, that in a workflow I repeatedly run  
> "names(myData)” because I can’t remember how a variable is named in  
> a data set.
>

I generally use (at the console window):

  grep(patt, names(dfrm), value=TRUE)

... since I have 100-200 names per dataframe and I only want to see  
the 5- 15 names that have a particular two or three letter string in  
them.

> I think Workspace Browser is underused in this respect: It actually  
> replaces a lot of the visual benefit that a spreadsheet offers for  
> thinking about dataFrame).

And look at that.... clickable arrows to expand tables and dataframes!

>
> Workspace Browser could become even more widely used and helpful if  
> it had:
>   1. A filter like the lovely history browser

I had overlooked that search window at the top of the History panel.  
NICE.

I guess that is the grep functionality.


>    2. Sortable by object, type, structure, (and preferably size for  
> spotting space hogs)
>
> Wishlist… :-)

Thanks for educating me and thanks to Simon and Hans-Joerg and anyone  
else whose work contributes to the Mac version and the GUI improvements.

> -- 
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
> <PastedGraphic-1.png>_______________________________________________
> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
> R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT