Avoiding Global Variables

Question

I'd like to make a basic profiling tool that collects time stamps and produces run times with a note. The only problem is I'm having trouble figuring out how to do this without using global variables. What's the "correct" way to implement the functionality I'm trying to achieve? If R already has this functionality built in, that's awesome, but what I'm really trying to figure out here is how to avoid using global variables and write more robust code.

timeStamps = c()
runTimes = list()

appendRunTimes <- function(note) {
  if(length(timeStamps) < 1) {
    timeStamps <<- Sys.time()
  }
  else {
    timeStamps <<- c(timeStamps, Sys.time())
    diff <- timeStamps[length(timeStamps) ] - timeStamps[length(timeStamps) - 1]
    runTimes <<- c(runTimes,  format(diff))
    names(runTimes)[length(runTimes)] <<-  note
  }

}


appendRunTimes('start')
Sys.sleep(4)
appendRunTimes('test')

I'd look at the code of system.time for ideas.. or use it! You can also look at the code for some of the benchmarking packages (microbenchmark for example). — Justin
– Justin, Commented Jan 4, 2013 at 22:57
In addition to the other suggestions, see "Introduction to R" (cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-intro.pdf) section 10.7, page 50 (2.15.2 revision). — Matthew Lundberg
– Matthew Lundberg, Commented Jan 5, 2013 at 4:38

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:18:46Z

8

Here's your example rewritten using closures:

RTmonitor <- local({
  timeStamps = c()
  runTimes = list()

  list(
    appendRunTimes=function(note) {
      if(length(timeStamps) < 1) {
        timeStamps <<- Sys.time()
      }
      else {
        timeStamps <<- c(timeStamps, Sys.time())
        diff <- timeStamps[length(timeStamps) ] - timeStamps[length(timeStamps) - 1]
        runTimes <<- c(runTimes,  format(diff))
        names(runTimes)[length(runTimes)] <<-  note
      }
    },
    viewRunTimes=function() {
      return(list(timeStamps=timeStamps,runTimes=runTimes))
    })
})


> RTmonitor$appendRunTimes("start")
> RTmonitor$appendRunTimes("test")
> RTmonitor$viewRunTimes()
$timeStamps
[1] "2013-01-04 18:39:12 EST" "2013-01-04 18:39:21 EST"

$runTimes
$runTimes$test
[1] "8.855587 secs"

Observe that the values are stored inside the closure, not in the global environment:

> timeStamps
Error: object 'timeStamps' not found
> runTimes
Error: object 'runTimes' not found
> RTmonitor$timeStamps
NULL
> RTmonitor$runTimes
NULL

More reading on closures and avoiding globals:

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:18

CommunityBot

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answered Jan 4, 2013 at 23:40

Ari B. Friedman

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2 Comments

Spacedman Over a year ago

You're only one step from R.oo or possibly using ReferenceClasses here, aren't you?

Ari B. Friedman Over a year ago

@Spacedman Want to post a R.oo or RefClass solution? :-) I'd be interested in seeing what others come up with.

Spacedman · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-05 17:21:52Z

Here's now to do this using ReferenceClasses:

RTmonitor = setRefClass("RTmonitor",
  fields=list(
    timeStamps="POSIXct",
    runTimes = "list"
    ),
  methods=list(
    appendRunTimes=function(note){
      if(length(timeStamps)==0){
        timeStamps <<- Sys.time()
      }else{
        timeStamps <<- c(timeStamps, Sys.time())
        diff <- timeStamps[length(timeStamps) ] - timeStamps[length(timeStamps) - 1]
        runTimes <<- c(runTimes,  format(diff))
        names(runTimes)[length(runTimes)] <<-  note
      }
    }
    )
  )

Now you've defined a class, instantiate an object and use it:

> r = RTmonitor$new()
> r$appendRunTimes("start")
> r$appendRunTimes("test")
> r
Reference class object of class "RTmonitor"
Field "timeStamps":
[1] "2013-01-05 14:52:25 GMT" "2013-01-05 14:52:31 GMT"
Field "runTimes":
$test
[1] "5.175815 secs"

Very similar to the closure approach, but more formalised. I had to define the timeStamps field as POSIXct, for example. You can also create multiple RTmonitor objects this way and they work independently - you'd have to write a closure constructor that wrapped the closure to do that.

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