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December 16, 2008

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Duncan Murdoch points out a slight error: f(x <- 3) isn't the only syntax you can use to assign in a function call: f( (x=3) ) would also work. More in this r-help post.

Jens Oehlschlägel makes the point that because of lazy evaluation, f(x <- 3) isn't guaranteed to perform any assignment to x. His (good) advice: "do not assign in function arguments unless you have good reasons".

Using 2 keystrokes for an assignment operator is a pain, although it's nicer to read. Does anyone bother reassigning a key (is there an easy way to do this?) to print out an arrow operator, as per the original APL keyboard?


@Bulgakov the ESS package for emacs sets the underscore '_' to emit the arrow (<-).

Also I have a vague recollection that older versions of R allowed '_' to be used in place of the arrow; however this is no longer true.

I routinely use Tinn-R's macro recorder to load <- at the start of a session and use <- . Personally I think it makes for easier reading of the code

If you run R as an inferior process to emacs you can get <- with spaces before and after by simply pressing the key _ (underscore). Of course you need the ESS package for emacs.

Thanks for the clarification. I also noticed in the link you shared that <<- was used at some point. I've neither used nor tried that one.

R-Studio has Alt- as shortcut key combination for " <- ". Yes, it adds the surrounding spaces!

The vim R package also substitute "_" with " <- " just like the ESS package for Emacs.

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2628

Given the absolute noise of programming, the extra keystroke for 'assigns' (that is '<-' vs '=') is no convenience. We are not that close to ultimate efficiency.

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