I copy-pasted your code into an LLM and it returned the reason for the error message.
On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 6:05 PM Jeff Newmiller via R-help < [email protected]> wrote: > Your proposed function's behaviour will be obscure to anyone else reading > the code where you use it. > > Pools of named vectors are used throughout R because humans have > difficulty mixing too many names in one place without running into problems > with accidentally re-using names and wiping out useful information related > to one part of the analysis with information related to another part. These > "pools" come in different flavors: data frames, lists, named vectors and > environments. > > You seem to be assuming that you will always be working with data in the > global environment... but this is one of the most at-risk places to have > name collisions that will mess you up. For example, you might have one > timestamp vector tracking when patients visited a doctor, and another one > keeping track of times when they got sick. this is exactly the kind of > situation where those should be in their own "pools" (data frames) because > there will be other vectors that should line up with the time stamps. > > It is better to have a function that accepts two parameters... one being > the name of the object containing the data and the other being the name of > that data. Also, assignment is one of the most clear operations someone > reading the code can learn from, so burying it in a function hides the most > useful and reusable/modifiable part of what you are doing. > > So, > > readit <- function(data, name) { > data[[ name ]] > } > > can be re-used as > > no[[ "Time" ]] <- readit( globalenv(), "Time" ) > > or > > no[[ "Time" ]] <- readit( raw_data, "Time" ) > > > On February 26, 2026 7:23:04 AM PST, "Sorkin, John" < > [email protected]> wrote: > >I am trying to write a function which will take accept an argument and > use the value of the argument to indicate the source of the data that > should be processed in an as.POSIXct function. My attempt at writing the > function is below: > > > >readit <- function(species){ > > no[,"NewTime"] <- > as.POSIXct(paste(species)[,"Time"],format=("%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%OS"),tz="UTC") > >} > > > >If the value of species is no2, I want the function call > >readit("no2") > >to produce a statement: > >no[,"NewTime"] <- > as.POSIXct(no[,"Time"],format=("%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%OS"),tz="UTC") > > > >If the value of species is co2, I want the function call > >readit("co2") > >to produce a statement: > >no[,"NewTime"] <- > as.POSIXct(co2[,"Time"],format=("%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%OS"),tz="UTC") > > > >When I run either version of the function and the call to the function I > receive the following error message: > > > >Browse[1]> readit("no2") > >Error during wrapup: incorrect number of dimensions > >Error: no more error handlers available (recursive errors?); invoking > 'abort' restart > > > >Please help me fix my code > > > >Thank you, > > > >John > > > >John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D. > >Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine; > >Associate Director for Biostatistics and Informatics, Baltimore VA > Medical Center Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center; > >Former PI Biostatistics and Informatics Core, University of Maryland > School of Medicine Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center; > >Senior Statistician University of Maryland Center for Vascular Research; > > > >Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, > >10 North Greene Street > >GRECC (BT/18/GR) > >Baltimore, MD 21201-1524 > >Cell phone 443-418-5382 > > > > > > > >______________________________________________ > >[email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >PLEASE do read the posting guide > https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > -- > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
