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nls() error: Object not found

2 messages · Yang, Richard, Douglas Bates

#
Dear R-helpers;

	Using nls() to fit a function,Rdum, defined below I stumbled on an
error: "Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos): Object "s0" not found." 

	The function Rdum is defined as

     Rdum <- deriv(~ h1 * (s0 + sl0*sl + sm0*sm  + sp01*sp1 + sp02*sp2 +
sp03*sp3+sp04*sp4) *
      ((1 - exp(-(s1 + sl1*sl + sm1*sm  + sp11*sp1 + sp12*sp2  +
sp14*sp4)*t2)) /
       (1 - exp(-(s1 + sl1*sl + sm1*sm  + sp11*sp1 + sp12*sp2 +
sp14*sp4)*t1)))^
       (s2 + sl2*sl+sm2*sm+ sp21*sp1+sp22*sp2+sp23*sp3+sp24*sp4),
  c("s0", "s10","sm0", "sp01","sp02","sp03","sp04",
     "s1", "sl1","sm1", "sp11", "sp12","sp14",
     "s2","sl2","sm2", "sp21","sp22","sp23","sp24"),
     function(s0,sl0,sm0,sp01,sp02,sp03,sp04, s1, sl1, sm1, sp11,sp12, sp14,

    s2, sl2, sm2, sp21,sp22, sp23, sp24, h1, t1,t2, sl, sm,sp1, sp2, sp3,
sp4){})

and variables t1, t2, h1, h2, sl, sm, sp1, sp2, sp3, and sp4 in the gbht10D
data frame are fitted to the function by

   Dum.nls <- nls(h2 ~ Rdum(s0, sl0, sm0, sp01, sp02, sp03, sp04, sl,
sl1,sm1,sp11,sp12, sp14,
   s2, sl2, sm2, sp21, sp22, sp23, sp24,h1, t1, t2, sl, sm, sp1, sp2, sp3,
sp4), data=gbht10D,
   start=c(0.8413,-0.1602,-0.0156,0.0527,0.0513,0.00314,0.0378,
   -0.00598,-0.0125,0.00328,0.00989,0.0113,0.00583,
   1.9255,0.9427,0.2408,-0.0643,0.0047,0.0016,-0.00519))

    The complained object "s0" is one of the 20 parameters in the function
to be estimated from the dataset gbht10D. 

    The nls() script is relatively short. Stepping into the source code, I
located the offending line:

Browse[1]> start
 [1]  0.84130 -0.16020 -0.01560  0.05270  0.05130  0.00314  0.03780 -0.00598
-0.01250
[10]  0.00328  0.00989  0.01130  0.00583  1.92550  0.94270  0.24080 -0.06430
0.00470
[19]  0.00160 -0.00519
Browse[1]> n
debug: pnames <- names(start)
Browse[1]> n
debug: varNames <- varNames[is.na(match(varNames, pnames, nomatch = NA))]
Browse[1]> n
debug: varIndex <- sapply(varNames, function(varName, data, respLength) {
    length(eval(as.name(varName), data))%%respLength == 0
}, data, length(eval(formula[[2]], data)))
Browse[1]> varNames
 [1] "h2"   "s0"   "sl0"  "sm0"  "sp01" "sp02" "sp03" "sp04" "sl"   "sl1"
"sm1"  "sp11"
[13] "sp12" "sp14" "s2"   "sl2"  "sm2"  "sp21" "sp22" "sp23" "sp24" "h1"
"t1"   "t2"  
[25] "sm"   "sp1"  "sp2"  "sp3"  "sp4" 
Browse[1]> n
Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos) : Object "s0" not found. 

The "s0" is shown in varNames. Is the error message misleading? Or did I
miss something? Any iedas and suggestions?

I am using R 2.0.0 on Windows XP.

TIA,

Richard Yang
#
Yang, Richard wrote:
The part of the manual page that states that start must be a named
vector?

    start: a named list or named numeric vector of starting estimates

The piece of code you are examining matches the starting values against 
the parameter names.  Because you did not name the starting values it 
cannot find a match for "s0".