I think the point is not that there needs to be a smaller package for yet another if-else (https://xkcd.com/927/). It is that if the R-language, as a whole, had a performant if-else in the base of the language would benefit **everyone** such that a data.table or dplyr or gtools etc. alternative would not be necessary.
On Tue, Jul 8, 2025 at 5:09 AM Ben Bolker <bbol...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think Duncan's point is that R-core are (reasonably) very, very, > very conservative about adding things to base R. It would be useful to > the community, and would indeed further the discussion, to make a tiny > package containing just that function. (Even just copying it from some > other package might require some work to disentangle it from > dependencies: for example, a quick glance at dplyr::if_else shows that > it uses functions from rlang, vctrs, ...) > > I'd be happy to accept a pull request in `gtools`, which is a > zero-dependency (except base R) package for small utility functions ... > > cheers > Ben Bolker > > > On 7/8/25 07:36, Antoine Fabri wrote: > > It's not about asking others to do it really, that was a harsh > assumption. > > I'd be happy to propose a version if it helps, I'd be also very happy if > it > > were just a copy of if_else or fifelse (both MIT FWIW). > > It's a low level building block and it's broken, IMO it's way better to > > have it available and documented in base R and incite everyone to use it, > > so not only we don't suffer from it in the code we write, but also in the > > code we use or inherit from. > > > > Le mar. 8 juil. 2025 à 13:25, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.dun...@gmail.com> > a > > écrit : > > > >> Rather than asking others to do this, why don't you create a tiny > >> package containing nothing other than an ifelse() replacement? I > >> wouldn't want to depend on dplyr or data.table just to get their > >> versions, but depending on your tiny package wouldn't be an issue. > >> > >> Duncan Murdoch > >> > >> On 2025-07-08 6:12 a.m., Antoine Fabri wrote: > >>> Dear r-devel, > >>> > >>> `ifelse()` has a lot of issues, and for these reasons it has been > redone > >> in > >>> `dplyr::if_else()` and `data.table::fifelse()`, which are both great. > Yet > >>> it's an important base R function, it's really hard to program in base > R > >>> without it and scores probably as high as it gets in the most_used * > >>> most_problematic metric. > >>> > >>> Obviously we can't change it without breaking a ton of code, but with > all > >>> the experience we now have with it and the dplyr and data.table > >> alternative > >>> maybe it might not be absurd to have a good alternative, say `if.else` > in > >>> base R, that we can document on the same page and recommend for future > >> use. > >>> It would require a common type in yes/no, not return logical() for all > >> zero > >>> length input, work with dates, datetimes and factors, handle a na > >> condition > >>> etc. The test suites of dplyr and data.table probably tell us > everything > >>> about the edge cases we want to look at. Maybe the old ifelse could > even > >>> warn when called from the top level, to incite us to work with the new > >> one. > >>> > >>> It feels wrong to me to be stuck with ifelse() forever just because it > >> has > >>> been like this for a long time. I'm sure some of you learnt your way > >> around > >>> it but I work with R every day and after 10+ years of R it still bites > me > >>> all the time, I'm probably not alone, at least chatGPT called it a > >>> "footgun", and we don't want that :). > >>> > >>> Thanks, > >>> > >>> Antoine > >>> > >>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > >>> > >>> ______________________________________________ > >>> R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > >> > >> > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > > -- > Dr. Benjamin Bolker > Professor, Mathematics & Statistics and Biology, McMaster University > Director, School of Computational Science and Engineering > * E-mail is sent at my convenience; I don't expect replies outside of > working hours. > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
