How can I use function arguments where variables exist with the same name?

Question

If I have a column in a data.frame that has the same name as one of the arguments to my function, the column name is used when trying to mutate or filter.

Is there a way to explicitly use the function parameter?

Reproducible example:

my_function <- function(x) {
  my_tib <- tribble(
    ~x, ~y,
    1,  5,
    2,  10,
    3,  15
  )

  my_tib %>%
    mutate(z = x * y)
}

my_function(x=100)

## A tibble: 3 x 3
#      x     y     z
#  <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#1     1     5     5
#2     2    10    20
#3     3    15    45

Desired result:

my_function(x=100)

## A tibble: 3 x 3
#      x     y     z
#  <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#1     1     5    500
#2     2    10    1000
#3     3    15    1500

Answer 1

You can use the {{ operator although avoiding the conflict in the first place seems a better way to avoid possible headaches.

library(dplyr)

my_function <- function(x) {
  my_tib <- tribble(
    ~x, ~y,
    1,  5,
    2,  10,
    3,  15
  )

  my_tib %>%
    mutate(z = {{x}} * y)
}

my_function(100)

# A tibble: 3 x 3
      x     y     z
  <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1     1     5   500
2     2    10  1000
3     3    15  1500