I would like to define a function using symbols, but freeze the symbols at their current values at the time of definition. Both symbols referring to the global scope and symbols referring to arguments are at issue. Consider this (R 2.4.0): > k1 <- 5 > k [1] 100 > a <- function(z) function() z+k > a1 <- a(k1) > k1 <- 2 > k <- 3 > a1() [1] 5 > k <- 10 > k1 <- 100 > a1() [1] 12
First, I'm a little surprised that that the value for k1 seems to get pinned by the initial evaluation of a1. I expected the final value to be 110 because the z in z+k is a promise. Second, how do I pin the values to the ones that obtain when the different functions are invoked? In other words, how should a be defined so that a1() gets me 5+100 in the previous example? I have a partial solution (for k), but it's ugly. With k = 1 and k1 = 100, > a <- eval(substitute(function(z) function() z+x, list(x=k))) > k <- 20 > a1 <- a(k1) > a1() [1] 101 (by the way, I thought a <- eval(substitute(function(z) function() z+k)) would work, but it didn't). This seems to pin the passed in argument as well, though it's even uglier: > a <- eval(substitute(function(z) { z; function() z+x}, list(x=k))) > a1 <- a(k1) > k1 <- 5 > a1() [1] 120 -- Ross Boylan wk: (415) 514-8146 185 Berry St #5700 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics fax: (415) 514-8150 University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94107-1739 hm: (415) 550-1062 ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel