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Destructuring assignments in R with the . object.

Usage

library(dotty)

# extract number of rows, number of columns from mtcars
.[nr, nc] <- dim(mtcars)
c(nr, nc)
## [1] 32 11
# extract first, last element of vector
.[first, .., last] <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
c(first, last)
## [1] 1 5
# extract a value by name
.[beta = beta] <- list(alpha = 1, beta = 2, gamma = 3)
beta
## [1] 2
# unpack nested values
.[x, .[y, .[z]]] <- list(1, list(2, list(3)))
c(x, y, z)
## [1] 1 2 3
# split version components
.[major, minor, patch] <- getRversion()
c(major, minor, patch)
## [1] 4 4 1

R CMD check

If you’d like to use dotty in your CRAN package, you can avoid R CMD check warnings by including a file called R/zzz.R with the contents:

.onLoad <- function(libname, pkgname) {
  dotty::dotify()
}

This function patches codetools so that variables usages in . expressions can be linted as though those were regular bindings / assignments.