D. R. Evans wrote: > I am 100% certain that there is an easy way to do this, but after > experimenting off and on for a couple of days, and searching everywhere I > could think of, I haven't been able to find the trick. > > I have this piece of code: > > ... > attach(d) > > if (ORDINATE == 'ds') > { lo <- loess(percent ~ ncms * ds, d, control=loess.control(trace.hat = > 'approximate')) > grid <- data.frame(expand.grid(ds=MINVAL:MAXVAL, ncms=MINCMS:MAXCMS)) > ... > > then there several almost-identical "if" statements for different values of > ORDINATE. For example, the next "if" statement starts with: > > ... > if (ORDINATE == 'dsl') > { lo <- loess(percent ~ ncms * dsl, d, control=loess.control(trace.hat = > 'approximate')) > grid <- data.frame(expand.grid(dsl=MINVAL:MAXVAL, ncms=MINCMS:MAXCMS)) > ... > > This is obviously pretty silly code (although of course it does work). > > I imagine that my question is obvious: given that I have a variable, > ORDINATE, whose value is a string, how do I re-write statements such as the > "lo <-" and "grid <-" statements above so that they use ORDINATE instead of > the hard-coded names "ds" and "dsl". > > I am almost sure (almost) that it has something to do with "deparse()", but > I couldn't find the right incantation, and the ?deparse() help left my head > swimming. >
myvar <- 12345 vname <- "myvar" eval(substitute(X+54321, list(X=as.name(vname)))) However, this does not work for argument names as in expand.grid(ds=.....), so for that part you may need to patch up names afterwards. It is (paraphrasing Thomas Lumley) often a good idea to reconsider the question if the answer involves this sort of trickery. Perhaps it is better handled by a loop or lapply over a list of variables? -- O__ ---- Peter Dalgaard Ă˜ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen Denmark Ph: (+45) 35327918 ~~~~~~~~~~ - ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) FAX: (+45) 35327907 ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.