R define dataset

Question

This is probably a stupid question but, is there a way to define a dataset in R to save time by avoiding typing dataset$ before the names of all the variables over and over again?

E.g. so I would type :

varA<-varB+varC

instead of :

dataset$varA<-dataset$varB+dataset$varC

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

attach() is one way however,

transform is a nice way to get rid of $

dat <- read.table(text = " varA  varB  varC
                                 0     1     1
                                 0     1     1
                                 0     1     1", header=TRUE)

dat <- transform(dat, varA = varB + varC)

similar to mutate() in plyr which:

seems to be considerably faster than transform for large data frames.

Answer 2

attach(dataset)

but note that this is discouraged if you're writing code to be reused.