CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rfunctionvariables
user3507085
user3507085

Reputation: 720

Get name of function in R

I have a function f:

f=function(){}

and a variable 

var=f

I would like to know how to get the name of the function f using var ? I tried :

as.character(quote(var))

but I get "var" and if I try eval(var) , I get function(){}

Does anyone have a solution ? Thank

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2534

Answers (2)

Mitra
Mitra

Reputation: 855

When you do: var=f you are actually creating a new variable var with the same content as f. In summary, you can not access the name of f in the example you gave since R is not keeping any history of this.

I am not sure what you want to do exactly, but the following might be helpful:

#definition of the function f
f=function(){}
#assignation of the reference 'f' instead of the content of f with substitute()
var=substitute(f)
#checking what is inside var
var
> f

#if you need to use f through var, you have to use eval()
eval(var)
> function(){}

Upvotes: 8

bartektartanus
bartektartanus

Reputation: 16080

var=f assignes function(){} to var. It only knows that it is a function and 'forgets' about variable name. This code:

f <- function(){}
var <- f

has the same effect as this:

var <- function(){}

Upvotes: -1

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