CODEWITHSUNDEEP
r
Conor Neilson
Conor Neilson

Reputation: 1091

How to use data() as a function argument

How can I write a function that takes an argument which is passed to the data function in R.

As a simple example

load_data <- function(mydata) {
    x <- data(mydata)
    x
}

If I tried to use this to load iris

load_data(mydata = "iris")

The function just returns "data set mydata not found"

My end goal here is to have a function that attaches a dataset to the function's environment, and then the function would do some arbitrary calculations.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 83

Answers (2)

flee
flee

Reputation: 1335

If you want iris to be stored in x then you don't need to call data at all.

load_data <- function(mydata) {
  x <- mydata
  x
}

load_data(iris)

Upvotes: 1

MrFlick
MrFlick

Reputation: 206197

If you want data() to evaualte that character string, it needs to be passed via list=

load_data <- function(mydata) {
  x <- data(list=mydata)
  x
}

I'm not sure what you were expecting to be returned but the ?data help page tells you it just returns the name of the data sets loaded, not the data itself.

If you only want it to load into the function scope, then also set the environment= parameter

load_data <- function(mydata) {
  data(list=mydata, environment=environment())
}

Upvotes: 4

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