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rfunctionpipeassignmagrittr

Pipeable assign function for R -- does not assign anything

I have been trying to make a pipeable assign() function for use in loops in conjunction with paste0().

However I cannot get it to actually assign anything, e.g.

assignp <- function(value, x) {
  
assign(x, value)
  
} 

assignp(13, "thirteen")
print(thirteen)

returns:

Error in print(thirteen) : object 'thirteen' not found

There are no error messages, it just doesn't assign the value to the variable name specified.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Solution

  • By default assign assigns value in it's current scope i.e within the function in this case. Specify envir = parent.frame() in assign.

    assignp <- function(value, x) {
  assign(x, value, envir = parent.frame())
  #You can also use .GlobalEnv to assign to global environment directly.
  #assign(x, value, envir = .GlobalEnv)
} 

assignp(13, "thirteen")
thirteen

#[1] 13