non-standard evaluation – Win-Vector Blog

June 18, 2017John MountCoding, Programming, Statistics, Tutorialsnon-standard evaluation, NSE, R, wraprLeave a comment

wrapr Implementation Update

Introduction

The development version of our R helper function wrapr::let() has switched from string-based substitution to abstract syntax tree based substitution (AST based subsitution, or language based substitution).

I am looking for some feedback from wrapr::let() users already doing substantial work with wrapr::let(). If you are already using wrapr::let() please test if the current development version of wrapr works with your code. If you run into problems: I apologize, and please file a GitHub issue.

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June 16, 2017June 16, 2017John MountCoding, data science, Opinion, Programming, Statistics, Tutorialsdplyr, function composition, functional programming, non-standard evaluation, NSE, R, R as it is, referential transparency, replyr, SE, wrapr10 Comments

Non-Standard Evaluation and Function Composition in R

In this article we will discuss composing standard-evaluation interfaces (SE) and composing non-standard-evaluation interfaces (NSE) in R.

In R the package tidyeval/rlang is a tool for building domain specific languages intended to allow easier composition of NSE interfaces.

To use it you must know some of its structure and notation. Here are some details paraphrased from the major tidyeval/rlang client, the package dplyr: vignette('programming', package = 'dplyr')).

":=" is needed to make left-hand-side re-mapping possible (adding yet another "more than one assignment type operator running around" notation issue).
"!!" substitution requires parenthesis to safely bind (so the notation is actually "(!! )", not "!!").
Left-hand-sides of expressions are names or strings, while right-hand-sides are quosures/expressions.

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March 17, 2017John MountCoding, OpinionLisp, macros, non-standard evaluation, R, standard evaluation1 Comment

Another R [Non-]Standard Evaluation Idea

Jonathan Carroll had a an interesting R language idea: to use @-notation to request value substitution in a non-standard evaluation environment (inspired by msyql User-Defined Variables).

He even picked the right image:

PandorasBox Continue reading Another R [Non-]Standard Evaluation Idea