grrr - a package for changing default function arguments

raison d’être - `stringsAsFactors = TRUE` sucks

This package can change default arguments in pre-existing functions to be almost anything.

So you can change stringsAsFactors = FALSE whereever you please!

This is based on a blog post from earlier this year.

Installation

install.packages("coolbutuseless/grrr")

Example 1: Change `mean` to use `na.rm = TRUE` by default

A call to mean will not remove NA values from the input i.e. na.rm = FALSE.

We can switch this default to na.rm = TRUE so that NA values are always removed:

grrr::update_function_arguments('mean.default', 'base', na.rm=TRUE)

mean(c(1, 3, 5, NA))
[1] 3

Example 2: Change `quantile` to not have a default value for `na.rm`

A problem with changing the default value to be different, is that while the code may work on your machine, it will still have the old behaviour for any one else running the code.

A safer way to change the default value would be to remove it altogether!

This way, you are forced to explicitly set a good/sane default value every time the function is called.

In the following call, the default value na.rm is removed, and thus an error will occur anytime we use the function without explictly setting the value.

grrr::update_function_arguments('quantile.default', 'stats', na.rm=)

quantile(1:10)
Error in quantile.default(1:10): argument "na.rm" is missing, with no default

Example 3: Print warnings when defaults are used

The problem with unsetting the default value is that there may be numerous places in packages that make use this assumption you’ve just removed! So you’ll end up with errors in places you can’t access to fix.

In this example, the stringsAsFactors argument to data.frame() is being changed to print a message if an explicit value isn’t given (but it will still go ahead and use the default anyway).

This way, you’ll be notified when it happens, but no error will occur.

grrr::update_function_arguments(
  function_name    = 'data.frame', 
  package_name     = 'base', 
  stringsAsFactors = { message("Using default stringsAsFactors in data.frame()"); default.stringsAsFactors() } 
)

data.frame(x = 1:3, y = c('a', 'b', 'c'))
Using default stringsAsFactors in data.frame()
  x y
1 1 a
2 2 b
3 3 c

FAQ

Why not just re-assign the function in the global namespace?

Because that won’t fix places which call the function explicitly e.g. stats::quantile()

Why not use `purrr::partial()`?

Because that won’t change the function where it lives.

Warning

This package uses unlockBinding() and assignInNamespace() and messes with the internals of other packages which is generally frowned upon.

Furthermore, assignInNamespace() actually has some checks to prevent what I’m trying to do. So there is now grrr::sudo_assignInNamespace() which drops some sanity checks. #madness

grrr - a package for changing default function arguments

raison d’être - stringsAsFactors = TRUE sucks