Method dispatch for functions inside dplyr::do

How would I implement method dispatch for a function inside of dplyr::do?

I've read through GitHub issues #719, #3558 and #3429 which have helpful information on how to create methods for dplyr verbs, but nothing in particular that works for dplyr::do - which is sort of "special" in the sense that the dispatch not only needs to happen for dplyr:do itself, but also for the function that is called inside dplyr::do (or at least that's what I'm after)

Here's what I tried:

Preliminaries

library(dplyr)
#> 
#> Attache Paket: 'dplyr'
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
#> 
#>     filter, lag
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
#> 
#>     intersect, setdiff, setequal, union

# Example data ------------------------------------------------------------

df <- tibble::tibble(
  id = c(rep("A", 5), rep("B", 5)),
  x = 1:10
)

df_custom <- df
class(df_custom) <- c("tbl_df_custom", class(df_custom))

# Reclass function --------------------------------------------------------

reclass <- function(x, result) {
  UseMethod('reclass')
}

reclass.default <- function(x, result) {
  class(result) <- unique(c(class(x)[[1]], class(result)))
  attr(result, class(x)[[1]]) <- attr(x, class(x)[[1]])
  result
}

Step 1: try to define a method for a dplyr verb

# Custom method for summarize ---------------------------------------------

summarise.tbl_df_custom <- function (.data, ...) {
  message("Custom method for `summarise`")
  result <- NextMethod("summarise")
  ret <- reclass(.data, result)
  print(class(ret))
  ret
}

ret <- df_custom %>%
  summarise(y = mean(x))
#> Custom method for `summarise`
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "tbl_df"        "tbl"           "data.frame"
ret %>% class()
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "tbl_df"        "tbl"           "data.frame"

Step 2: try to define a method for a another dplyr verb to test longer pipe

# Custom method for group_by ----------------------------------------------

group_by.tbl_df_custom <- function (.data, ..., add = FALSE) {
  message("Custom method for `group_by`")
  result <- NextMethod("group_by")
  ret <- reclass(.data, result)
  print(class(ret))
  ret
}

ret <- df_custom %>%
  group_by(id) %>%
  summarise(y = mean(x))
#> Custom method for `group_by`
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "grouped_df"    "tbl_df"        "tbl"          
#> [5] "data.frame"
#> Custom method for `summarise`
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "tbl_df"        "tbl"           "data.frame"
ret %>% class()
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "tbl_df"        "tbl"           "data.frame"

Step 3: trying the same for `do`

# Custom method for do ----------------------------------------------------

do.tbl_df_custom <- function (.data, ...) {
  message("custom method for `do`")
  result <- NextMethod("do")
  ret <- reclass(.data, result)
  print(class(ret))
  ret
}

foo <- function(df) {
  UseMethod("foo")
}

foo.default <- function(df) {
  message("Default method for `foo`")
  df %>%
    summarise(y = mean(x))
}

foo.tbl_df_custom <- function(df) {
  message("Custom method for `foo`")
  df %>%
    summarise(y = mean(x) * 100)
}

ret <- df_custom %>%
  group_by(id) %>%
  do(foo(.))
#> Custom method for `group_by`
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "grouped_df"    "tbl_df"        "tbl"          
#> [5] "data.frame"
#> custom method for `do`
#> Default method for `foo`
#> Default method for `foo`
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "grouped_df"    "tbl_df"        "tbl"          
#> [5] "data.frame"
ret
#> # A tibble: 2 x 2
#> # Groups:   id [2]
#>   id        y
#>   <chr> <dbl>
#> 1 A         3
#> 2 B         8
ret %>% class()
#> [1] "tbl_df_custom" "grouped_df"    "tbl_df"        "tbl"          
#> [5] "data.frame"

While this looks okay on first sight, the problem is that the default instead of the custom method for foo is called.

Created on 2019-01-08 by the reprex package (v0.2.1)

Solution

So the issue is related to this question I just asked. I was able to solve it by defining 3 new funtions: ungroup.tbl_df_custom, a class constructor function, and [.tbl_df_custom.