Create a list of functions from a vector of characters

Question

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this question has been answered previously - I have looked pretty extensively. I have a dataset containing a row of with concatenated informa

Answer 1

Maybe initialize your list with a single generic function, and then update them using:

foo <- function(x){x+3}
> body(foo) <- quote(x+4)
> foo
function (x) 
x + 4

More specifically, starting from a character, you'd probably do something like:

body(foo) <- parse(text = "x+5")

Answer 2

Just to add onto joran's answer, this is what finally worked:

test.data <- matrix(data=rep(1,25),5,5)
test.data <- data.frame(test.data)

test.func <- c("x","x+1","x+2","x+3","x+4")
func.list <- list()

for(i in 1:length(test.func)){
  func.list[[i]] <- function(x){}
  body(func.list[[i]]) <- parse(text=test.func[i])
}

processed <- mapply(do.call,func.list,lapply(test.data,list))

Thanks again, joran.

Answer 3

This is what I do:

f <- list(identity="x",plus1 = "x+1", square= "x^2")
funCreator <- function(snippet){
  txt <- snippet
  function(x){
    exprs <- parse(text = txt)
    eval(exprs)   
  }
}
listOfFunctions <- lapply(setNames(f,names(f)),function(x){funCreator(x)}) # I like to have some control of the names of the functions
listOfFunctions[[1]] # try to see what the actual function looks like?
library(pryr)
unenclose(listOfFunctions[[3]]) # good way to see the actual function http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Functional-programming.html
# Call your funcions
listOfFunctions[[2]](3) # 3+1 = 4
do.call(listOfFunctions[[3]],list(3)) # 3^2 = 9
attach(listOfFunctions) # you can also attach your list of functions and call them by name
square(3)  # 3^2 = 9
identity(7) # 7 ## masked object identity, better detach it now!
detach(listOfFunctions)