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creating a sequence of object names

5 messages · Uwe Ligges, John

Original
John
# 
Hello R-users,

I wanted to generate objects named 'my.ftn1',
'my.ftn2', ... , 'my.ftn10', and tried the following
code without success. How can I do this?
+ sub(" ", "", paste("my.ftn", i)) <- NULL
+ }
Error: Target of assignment expands to non-language
object
Many thanks.

John
Uwe Ligges
#
John wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        
Please do as suggested above, read the posting guide!
It suggests to read the FAQs. FAQ 7.21 is what you are looking for: "How 
can I turn a string into a variable?".

Uwe Ligges

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      John
    

    

      
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Thank you, Uwe. I've found a way to do the job by
reading the FAQ 7.21 although it is not giving a
precise explanation to a novice or casual user at
first reading. For example, if you type the first two
lines in the FAQ, you get an error as you do not have
the variable, a, initially.

I am sure that more and more people get interested in
and serious about using R if advanced users are kind
enough to answer simple and silly questions as well
which are already explained in basic documentations.
Or is this community for highly motivated and advanced
R users only?

Regards,

John


 --- Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Uwe Ligges
    

    

      
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John wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
But the corresponding help files do so, for sure, and the FAQ 7.21 
points you to ?assign and ?get.

            

      
      
      
    

        
No, of course it is for novices as well!

BUT we do expect that novices do read basic documentation such as "An 
Introduction to R" and the R FAQ before asking question.
If there are too many silly questions from thousands of R users, nobody 
is able to manage the questions any more. And note that those people 
answering questions do it on a voluntary basis, and (at least partially) 
in their spare time!
Nobody would be subscribed to R-help any more, if there are 1000 mails a 
day, 900 of them containing silly questions! It is yet already hard 
enough to get through the huge amount of messages in a reasonable amount 
of time!


I have answered your question in a way,

  1) so that it is up to you to read some documentation. Now you have 
seen the FAQs and some help files. And you have learned much more than 
you would have learned if I had said "Use assign()"

  2) so that nobody feels too encouraged to ask questions before reading 
basic documentation - and my answer still saved you a lot of time!

Uwe Ligges

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      John
    

    

      
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Dear Uwe,

I must say that I had thanked you for referring me to
the "specific and exact" FAQ 7.21 and I had solved my
simple problem from it. I alreadly had looked at some
of basic materials like 'An Introduction to R', 'R for
Beginners', 'R Data Import/Export as well as the
FAQ(that is, I know how to use ?assign and ?get). But,
because I am not going to be an expert in R I assume
that I have missed something (even very trivial) in
those documents. Of course, I can read them again and
again until I know everything in them. That is for
more interested enthusiasts, however. 

I know very well that it is basic manners to read
those materials before asking questions here, but you
should also understand that people sometimes get stuck
with very simple problems if they are driven by stress
or run down. They can save a lot of time and
concentrate on and develop their primary jobs instead.
And I don't think you should be worried about 900
silly questions out of 1000 messages posted because
they are at least well-educated people who know what
reading basic materials before posting questions
means.

People can learn diverse solutions about their simple
questions, from advanced experienced users, that
sometimes contain much more informations and tips.
It is up to users(not necessarily advanced users)
whether or not they are willing to answer questions
and share their precious (even little) findings in
programming. Volunteers can simply ignore silly
questions if they are not appropriate for answering.
Or I would let them know what to do with their
improper questions in a personal email.

Finally, I do appreciate your answer again and other
people's active replies too. It was really useful to
point me to the specific FAQ rather than to just say
'look at the FAQ'. It simply occurred to my mind that
"kindness" is the best policy for good education.

I beg your pardon if this message is not relevant to
this help list.

With kind regards,

John


 --- Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
wrote: