R-beta: Re: "as.numeric" `mode' and `cast' should be kept separate.

Friedrich Leisch <Friedrich.Leisch at ci.tuwien.ac.at> writes:

"%cast.as%" <- function(x, form) {
storage.mode(x) <- deparse(substitute(form))
x
}

...

RI> This certainly appeals to me straight away!  A very nice suggestion.


I add a second PRO vote.

I think I have at least half a CON: Is it necessary to do the
deparse(substitute(form)) bit, just to get rid of the quotes? There
are many occasions where you *feel like* doing that in R/S, but
refrain from it, realising that you really want to be able to pass the
argument in a variable, sometimes.

Some examples are:

 read.table(file.dat)
 plot(x,y,type=l) 

On the other hand, help and apropos already contain logic to allow
unquoted arguments.

Without that piece of logic one could just

"%as%"<-.Alias(get("storage.mode<-"))

pi %as% "integer"

[1] 3

This doesn't change pi, BTW:

pi

[1] 3.141593

O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907

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