I have no answer to your question, but note:
1. You do not need to return a data frame at all, of course. Most
functions do not -- e.g., say, lm() .
2. See ?with and ?within for perhaps relevant functionality.
-- Bert
On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 2:19 PM, Ramiro Barrantes
<ram...@precisionbioassay.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I come from using different programming languages (C++, Mathematica, Perl)
> but have been using R extensively for several months. I see the data frame
> as a key piece of the language and wanted to inquire people's experience
> regarding its use.
>
> Say you have a data frame D
>
> D <- data.frame(some columns)
>
> and you define a function that needs the information from this data frame and
> is supposed to return a calculation based on some columns of such data frame
> D.
>
> func <- function(d) {}
> #EFFECT: Does calculation X from some columns of d
>
> QUESTION: Would you consider better practice to return the same data.frame
> but expanded, or would you return a small data frame that consists of the
> newly computed columns?
>
> Some might say, either way, personal preference. But after using and seeing
> other's code for some time, I am thinking that returning the result that
> consists of ONLY the relevant columns is a better practice as it defines the
> function as only returning what it was intended to return, and leaves it up
> to the user of the function to do whatever they were intending to do with it
> (including naming of the new columns, adding them to a data frame, etc.).
> This might be a question for a computer programming theory group, but if
> anybody has any insight from their experience please share.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Ramiro
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
--
Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics
Internal Contact Info:
Phone: 467-7374
Website:
http://pharmadevelopment.roche.com/index/pdb/pdb-functional-groups/pdb-biostatistics/pdb-ncb-home.htm
______________________________________________
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
