pasted variable name not recognized in loop

Question

sorry for the ugly code, but I'm not sure exactly what's going wrong

for (i in 1:1) 
    tab_sector[1:48,i] <- 
        tapply(get(paste("employee",1997-1+i, "[birth<=(1997-1+i)]",sep="")),
               ordered(sic2digit[birth<=(1997-1+i)],levels=tab_sector_list))

# Error in get(paste("employee", 1997 - 1 + i, 
# "[birth<=(1997-1+i))]",  : object 'employee97[birth<=(1997-1+i)]' not found

but the variable is there:

head(employee97[birth<=(1997-1+i)])
# [1] 1 2 2 1 3 4

a simpler version where "employee" is not conditioned by "birth" works

Could be nothing, but shouldn't paste("employee",1997-1+i, "[birth<=(1997-1+i)]",sep="") give you employee1997[birth<=(1997-1+i)] rather than employee97[... ? either the code snippet or the error reported by R doesn't match! — mjv
– mjv, Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 17:09
sorry, my mistake, in an effort to make it simpler I modified the earlier (even uglier) index: "employee",(1997-1901+i) -- apologies for adding a further layer of confusion — ma-d
– ma-d, Commented Nov 23, 2012 at 8:36

Greg Snow · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 17:23:50Z

2

It would help if you told us what you are trying to accomplish.

In your code the get function is looking for a variable whose name is "'employee97[birth<=(1997-1+i)]", the code that works is finding a variable whose name is "employee1997" then subsetting it, those are very different. The get function does not do subsetting.

Part of what you are trying to do is FAQ 7.21, the most important part of which is the end where it suggests storing your data in lists to make accessing easier.

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 17:23

Greg Snow

49.9k6 gold badges86 silver badges114 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Ben Bolker · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 18:18:39Z

2

You can't get an indexed element, e.g. get("x[i]") fails: you need get("x")[i].

Your code is almost too messy too see what's going on, but this is an attempt at a translation:

   for (i in 1:1){
        ind <- 1997-1+i
        v1 <- get(paste0("employee",ind))
        tab_sector[1:48,i] <- tapply(v1[birth<=ind],
             ordered(sic2digit[birth<=ind],levels=tab_sector_list))
    }

edited Nov 22, 2012 at 18:18

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 17:22

Ben Bolker

230k26 gold badges405 silver badges497 bronze badges

1 Comment

ma-d Over a year ago

get ("x")[i] was indeed the tip I needed -- thanks with apologies for messy code

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

pasted variable name not recognized in loop

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related