Make sure a data frame has been "fun through" a function

Hello,

I would like to add something to a data frame that is 1) invisible to the
user, 2) has no side effects, and 3) I can test for in a following
function. Is this possible? I am exploring classes and attributes and I
have thought about using a list (but 1 and 2 not satisfied). Any help would
be greatly appreciated.

I did not provide a reproducible example because I see this as more of a R
language question, but I will be happy to make a toy example if that would
help.

I appreciate all of the help.

kindest regards,

Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so
little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us
feel like gods.  We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little
problems of being mammals.

                                -K. Mullis

"A big computer, a complex algorithm and a long time does not equal
science."

                              -Robert Gentleman

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