avoid <<- in specific case

On 05/10/2012 8:19 AM, Berry Boessenkool wrote:

Hi all,

I improved a function drawing horizontal histograms (code below) which
uses barplot and works fine.
It does,however, need to assign a function to the global environment to
later find the actual location on the vertical axis, and not the number of
bars used by barplot.
Hopefully, running the examples below will illustrate that.

As said, it works perfectly fine and does exactly what I want.
The problem arises now that I'm building a package (just for myself, for
now) and run into R CMD
check telling me 'no visible binding for '<<-' assignment'.
(wording below)
Similar problem as in
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/R-CMD-check-tells-me-no-visible-binding-for-global-variable-what-does-it-mean-td1837236.html

My question is:
Is there a way to avoid assigning the function to the global environment
with <<- but still have it available? I know it is generally not good
practice.

You can return the function as the value of your function.   A bonus:  if it
is created within the body of your function, it will have access to all the
local variables there.

You shouldn't write to the global environment, because globalenv belongs to
the user, not to you.  If the user wants your function in the global
environment s/he can just assign the value of your function to a variable
there.

Duncan Murdoch

Or ist it OK in a case like this, and is there a way to avoid the notes
from the rcmd check (make the function package-compatible)?
Or should I just ignore these notes? (I'm completely new to building
packages and cannot judge the importance yet.)

I'd be very thankful for any hints!

Berry

PS: I recently read about barcharts in lattice, but by now I'm already
used to my function. (And I learned a lot writing it a couple of years ago).

  # Function
horiz.hist <- function(Data, breaks="Sturges", col="transparent", las=1,
ylim=range(HBreaks), labelat=pretty(ylim), labels=labelat,
border=par("fg"), ... )
   {a <- hist(Data, plot=FALSE, breaks=breaks)
   HBreaks <- a$breaks
   HBreak1 <- a$breaks[1]
   hpos <<- function(Pos) (Pos-HBreak1)*(length(HBreaks)-1)/
diff(range(HBreaks)) # Assign a function to the global environment with
values calculated inside the main function.
   barplot(a$counts, space=0, horiz=T, ylim=hpos(ylim), col=col,
border=border,...)
   axis(2, at=hpos(labelat), labels=labels, las=las, ...)
   print("use hpos() to address y-coordinates") }

# Data and basic concept
set.seed(8); ExampleData <- rnorm(50,8,5)+5
hist(ExampleData)
horiz.hist(ExampleData, xlab="absolute frequency")
# Caution: the labels at the y-axis are not the real coordinates!
# abline(h=2) will draw above the second bar, not at the label value 2.
Use hpos:
abline(h=hpos(11), col=2)

# Further arguments
horiz.hist(ExampleData, xlim=c(-8,20))
horiz.hist(ExampleData, main="the ... argument worked!", col.axis=3)
hist(ExampleData, xlim=c(-10,40)) # with xlim
horiz.hist(ExampleData, ylim=c(-10,40), border="red") # with ylim
horiz.hist(ExampleData, breaks=20, col="orange")
axis(2, hpos(0:10), labels=F, col=2) # another use of hpos()

# One shortcoming: doesn't work with breakpoints provided as a vector with
different widths of the bars


Wording from the rcmd check when building a package:
* checking R code for possible problems ... NOTE
horiz.hist: no visible binding for '<<-' assignment to 'hpos'
horiz.hist: no visible global function definition for 'hpos'