Auto-named Concatenation of Vector or List

This is a wrapper to the function c, however names the respective elements according to their input object name. For this reason, nesting nc() calls is not recommended (joining independent nc() calls via c() is however reasonable).

Usage

nc(..., use.names = FALSE, error.on.duplicate = TRUE)

Arguments

...

objects to be concatenated

use.names

logical indicating if names should be preserved (unlike c, default is FALSE)

error.on.duplicate

logical; if the same object name appears in the returning object should an error be thrown? Default is TRUE

References

Chalmers, R. P., & Adkins, M. C. (2020). Writing Effective and Reliable Monte Carlo Simulations with the SimDesign Package. The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 16(4), 248-280. doi:10.20982/tqmp.16.4.p248

Sigal, M. J., & Chalmers, R. P. (2016). Play it again: Teaching statistics with Monte Carlo simulation. Journal of Statistics Education, 24(3), 136-156. doi:10.1080/10691898.2016.1246953

Examples

A <- 1
B <- 2
C <- 3

names(C) <- 'LetterC'

# compare the following
c(A, B, C) # unnamed
#>                 LetterC 
#>       1       2       3 

nc(A, B, C) # named
#> A B C 
#> 1 2 3 
nc(this=A, B, C) # respects override named (same as c() )
#> this    B    C 
#>    1    2    3 
nc(this=A, B, C, use.names = TRUE) # preserve original name
#>    this       B LetterC 
#>       1       2       3 

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# throws errors if names not unique
nc(this=A, this=B, C)
nc(LetterC=A, B, C, use.names=TRUE)
} # }

# poor input choice names
nc(t.test(c(1:2))$p.value, t.test(c(3:4))$p.value)
#> t.test(c(1:2))_p.value t.test(c(3:4))_p.value 
#>             0.20483276             0.09033447 

# better to explicitly provide name
nc(T1 = t.test(c(1:2))$p.value,
   T2 = t.test(c(3:4))$p.value)
#>         T1         T2 
#> 0.20483276 0.09033447 

# vector of unnamed inputs
A <- c(5,4,3,2,1)
B <- c(100, 200)

nc(A, B, C) # A's and B's numbered uniquely
#>  A1  A2  A3  A4  A5  B1  B2   C 
#>   5   4   3   2   1 100 200   3 
c(A, B, C)  # compare
#>                                                         LetterC 
#>       5       4       3       2       1     100     200       3 
nc(beta=A, B, C) # replacement of object name
#> beta1 beta2 beta3 beta4 beta5    B1    B2     C 
#>     5     4     3     2     1   100   200     3 

# retain names attributes (but append object name, when appropriate)
names(A) <- letters[1:5]
nc(A, B, C)
#> A.a A.b A.c A.d A.e  B1  B2   C 
#>   5   4   3   2   1 100 200   3 
nc(beta=A, B, C)
#> beta.a beta.b beta.c beta.d beta.e     B1     B2      C 
#>      5      4      3      2      1    100    200      3 
nc(A, B, C, use.names=TRUE)
#>       a       b       c       d       e      B1      B2 LetterC 
#>       5       4       3       2       1     100     200       3 

# mix and match if some named elements work while others do not
c( nc(A, B, use.names=TRUE), nc(C))
#>   a   b   c   d   e  B1  B2   C 
#>   5   4   3   2   1 100 200   3 

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# error, 'b' appears twice
names(B) <- c('b', 'b2')
nc(A, B, C, use.names=TRUE)
} # }

# List input
A <- list(1)
B <- list(2:3)
C <- list('C')

names(C) <- 'LetterC'

# compare the following
c(A, B, C) # unnamed
#> [[1]]
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1] 2 3
#> 
#> $LetterC
#> [1] "C"
#> 

nc(A, B, C) # named
#> $A
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> $B
#> [1] 2 3
#> 
#> $C
#> [1] "C"
#> 
nc(this=A, B, C) # respects override named (same as c() and list() )
#> $this
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> $B
#> [1] 2 3
#> 
#> $C
#> [1] "C"
#> 
nc(this=A, B, C, use.names = TRUE) # preserve original name
#> $this
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> $B
#> [1] 2 3
#> 
#> $LetterC
#> [1] "C"
#>