R for Data Science Cookbook

Using the replacement function

On some occasions in R, we may discover that we can assign a value to a function call, which is what the replacement function does. Here, we will show you how the replacement function works, and how to create your own.

Getting ready

Ensure that you completed the previous recipes by installing R on your operating system.

How to do it...

Perform the following steps to create a replacement function in R:

1. First, we assign names to data with the names function:

   > x <- c(1,2,3)
   >names(x) <- c('a','b','c')
   >x
   a b c
   1 2 3
   

   What the names function actually does is similar to the following commands:

   > x <- 'names<-'(x,value=c('a','b','c'))
   >x
   a b c
   1 2 3
   

2. Here, we can also make our replacement function:

   > x<-c(1,2,3)
   > "erase<-" ...