-----Original Message-----
From: R-devel [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Dean
If i have a function that returns a named list with 2 (or more) elements,
then using 'vapply' retains the names of the elements:
....
But if the function only returns one element, then the name "foo" is lost
vapply _always simplifies_ according to the documentation.
In the first case (function return value contains more than one element,
and each ), vapply simplifies to a matrix of two lists (!). The names
"foo" and "hello" have been added to the dimnames so you can tell which is
which.
in the second case the function return value is a single list and not a
matrix of lists (a simple list is simpler than a matrix of lists). The name
of the list ('foo') has nowhere to go; instead, you would be assigning the
list to a named variable and you don't need the name 'foo'.
Whether that is inconsistent is something of a matter of perspective.
Simplification applied as far as possible will always depend on what
simplification is possible for the particular return values, so different
return values provide different behaviour.
S Ellison
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