Chaining assignments in R

Asked Feb 03 '21 at 12:38

Active Feb 22 '21 at 21:27

Viewed 87 times

I recently discovered that R allows chaining of assignments, e.g.

a = b = 1:10
a
 [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
b
 [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10

I then thought that this could also be used in functions, if two arguments should take the same value. However, this was not the case. For example, plot(x = y = 1:10) produces the following error: Error: unexpected '=' in "plot(x = y =". What is different, and why doesn't this work? I am guessing this has something to with only the first being returned to the function, but both seem to be evaluated.

What are some possibilities and constraints with chained assignments in R?

edited Feb 22 '21 at 21:27

asked Feb 03 '21 at 12:38

mhovd

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I tried answering it , but I am not sure if you are looking for difference b/w = and – PKumar Feb 03 '21 at 12:55
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You can do plot(x = x – G. Grothendieck Feb 03 '21 at 13:34
@PKumar, that won't produce a plot with x and y being equal to 1:10, but will plot 1:10 against the index. Take `sum(a – mhovd Feb 03 '21 at 14:22

Chaining assignments in R

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