functions in .Rprofile are not found with are in .env

Question

I have a .Rprofile I have copied from https://www.r-bloggers.com/fun-with-rprofile-and-customizing-r-startup/ However, when I load my R session the functions that are in env$ they don't work and the functions not in env works perfectly, here is an example:

sshhh <- function(a.package){
   suppressWarnings(suppressPackageStartupMessages(
   library(a.package, character.only=TRUE)))
}

 auto.loads <-c("dplyr", "ggplot2")

if(interactive()){
  invisible(sapply(auto.loads, sshhh))
 }

.env <- new.env()
attach(.env)

.env$unrowname <- function(x) {
 rownames(x) <- NULL
x 
}

.env$unfactor <- function(df){
 id <- sapply(df, is.factor)
 df[id] <- lapply(df[id], as.character)
 df
 }

message("n*** Successfully loaded .Rprofile ***n")

Once R is loaded I can type sshhh and it shows the function, but if I type unfactor it shows object not found

Any help? Should I put all the functions on my workspace???

perhaps you should `attach(.env)` after all your functions are defined not midway through — user20650, Sep 09 '16 at 10:58
I will `attach(.env)` and see if it works, although I have it added — user2380782, Sep 09 '16 at 11:21
you would need to attach after you add the function to .env. — user20650, Sep 09 '16 at 11:27
ps given that creating packages is now almost effortless it may be worth creating one and adding your functions to it, to save messing about with attaching environments. — user20650, Sep 09 '16 at 11:28

Keith Hughitt · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-09T11:01:02.280

1

They functions created in a separate environment are intentionally hidden. This is to protect them from calls to rm(list=ls()).

From the original article:

[Lines 58-59]: This creates a new hidden namespace that we can store some functions in. We need to do this in order for these functions to survive a call to “rm(list=ls())” which will remove everything in the current namespace. This is described wonderfully in this blog post [1].

To use the unfactor function, you would call .env$unfactor().

If you want to make those function available in the global namespace without having to refer to .env, you can simply leave out the whole .env part and just add the function the same way you did for the sshhh function.

[1] http://gettinggeneticsdone.blogspot.com.es/2013/07/customize-rprofile.html

edited Sep 09 '16 at 11:01

answered Sep 09 '16 at 10:56

Keith Hughitt

4,860
5
49
54

Thanks @KeithHughitt but how can I make this functions available, when I start the R session? should I load the environment? – user2380782 Sep 09 '16 at 10:59
Just drop the `.env$` part when you define the functions and assign them the same way you did for `sshhh()` function. – Keith Hughitt Sep 09 '16 at 11:02
@KeithHughittl; if `attach(.env)` is added to the .Rprofile script after the `.env$unfactor` function is defined, you can then access the function via `unfactor` – user20650 Sep 09 '16 at 11:05

functions in .Rprofile are not found with are in .env

1 Answers1