Retrieving function name

"Tom McCallum" <tom.mccallum at levelelimited.com> writes:

Hi,

Does anyone know how I can retrieve a function name, for example

If I have a function f as follows:

f <- function( myfunc ) {
	print( name_of(myfunc) );
}

I want to know what I should have as "name_of" such that I could call this  
with :
	f( median )
and it would print "median"

or f( my_function_name ) and it would print "m_function_name".

So far all I can get is the function definition that myfunc points to.

I thought the structure command might do it but this also just gives back  
the function definition and not the original name.

Any suggestions?

Depending on what you really want, this is either impossible or
trivial. The trivial version is 

f <- function(x) print(deparse(substitute(x)))

and the impossible one is to get something that prints "mean" if you
do something like

x<-1
f(switch(x, 1 = mean, 2 = median, 3 = sd, 4 = IQR))

or 

g <- function(foo) f(foo)
g(mean)

or indeed does anything sensible with

f(function(x,y) x*y)


Thing is, functions do not "have names", they can be anonymous or
assigned to multiple names, or be passed as arguments.

O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             ?ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
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