Is there a way to write pipelined functions in R where the result of one function passes immediately into the next? I'm coming from F# and really appreciated this ability but have not found how to do it in R. It should be simple but I can't find how. In F# it would look something like this:
let complexFunction x =
x |> square
|> add 5
|> toString
In this case the input would be squared, then have 5 added to it and then converted to a string. I'm wanting to be able to do something similar in R but don't know how. I've searched for how to do something like this but have not come across anything. I'm wanting this for importing data because I typically have to import it and then filter. Right now I do this in multiple steps and would really like to be able to do something the way you would in F# with pipelines.
We can use Compose from the functional package to create our own binary operator that does something similar to what you want
# Define our helper functions
square <- function(x){x^2}
add5 <- function(x){x + 5}
# functional contains Compose
library(functional)
# Define our binary operator
"%|>%" <- Compose
# Create our complexFunction by 'piping' our functions
complexFunction <- square %|>% add5 %|>% as.character
complexFunction(1:5)
#[1] "6" "9" "14" "21" "30"
# previously had this until flodel pointed out
# that the above was sufficient
#"%|>%" <- function(fun1, fun2){ Compose(fun1, fun2) }
I guess we could technically do this without requiring the functional package - but it feels so right using Compose for this task.
"%|>%" <- function(fun1, fun2){
function(x){fun2(fun1(x))}
}
complexFunction <- square %|>% add5 %|>% as.character
complexFunction(1:5)
#[1] "6" "9" "14" "21" "30"