R function parameter is "object not found"

Question

I am passing in a csv file with two columns, the first being the major and the second being the courses in that major. For some reason when I run this, current_major is not showing up in my enviorment and when I run it in the console, it tells me that the object "current" is not found. I am having a lot of trouble understanding what is going wrong here.

course_data <- read.csv("file location")
majorCompare <- function(current, new){
  current_major <- which(course_data$major == current)
}
majorCompare("Animal Science", "American Studies")

Edward · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-16 23:06:14Z

2

Your function is creating the object current_major within the scope of the function, and then it disappears into thin air when the function is finished. That's why you don't see it.

You could use the superassignment operator <<-

majorCompare <- function(current, new){
  current_major <<- which(course_data$major == current)
}

majorCompare("Animal Science", "American Studies")

But functions should ideally return something and not change your global environment. So do this instead.

majorCompare <- function(current, new){
   which(course_data$major == current)
}

current_major <- majorCompare("Animal Science", "American Studies")

You've also declared new as a function argument but it is never used within the function body.

answered Jun 16, 2020 at 23:06

Edward

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