How to assign from a function which returns more than one value?

Still trying to get into the R logic... what is the "best" way to unpack (on LHS) the results from a function returning multiple values?

I can't do this apparently:

R> functionReturningTwoValues <- function() { return(c(1, 2)) }
R> functionReturningTwoValues()
[1] 1 2
R> a, b <- functionReturningTwoValues()
Error: unexpected ',' in "a,"
R> c(a, b) <- functionReturningTwoValues()
Error in c(a, b) <- functionReturningTwoValues() : object 'a' not found

must I really do the following?

R> r <- functionReturningTwoValues()
R> a <- r[1]; b <- r[2]

or would the R programmer write something more like this:

R> functionReturningTwoValues <- function() {return(list(first=1, second=2))}
R> r <- functionReturningTwoValues()
R> r$first
[1] 1
R> r$second
[1] 2

--- edited to answer Shane's questions ---

I don't really need giving names to the result value parts. I am applying one aggregate function to the first component and an other to the second component (min and max. if it was the same function for both components I would not need splitting them).

Solution 1:

(1) list[...]<- I had posted this over a decade ago on r-help. Since then it has been added to the gsubfn package. It does not require a special operator but does require that the left hand side be written using list[...] like this:

library(gsubfn)  # need 0.7-0 or later
list[a, b] <- functionReturningTwoValues()

If you only need the first or second component these all work too:

list[a] <- functionReturningTwoValues()
list[a, ] <- functionReturningTwoValues()
list[, b] <- functionReturningTwoValues()

(Of course, if you only needed one value then functionReturningTwoValues()[[1]] or functionReturningTwoValues()[[2]] would be sufficient.)

See the cited r-help thread for more examples.

(2) with If the intent is merely to combine the multiple values subsequently and the return values are named then a simple alternative is to use with :

myfun <- function() list(a = 1, b = 2)

list[a, b] <- myfun()
a + b

# same
with(myfun(), a + b)

(3) attach Another alternative is attach:

attach(myfun())
a + b

ADDED: with and attach

Solution 2:

I somehow stumbled on this clever hack on the internet ... I'm not sure if it's nasty or beautiful, but it lets you create a "magical" operator that allows you to unpack multiple return values into their own variable. The := function is defined here, and included below for posterity:

':=' <- function(lhs, rhs) {
  frame <- parent.frame()
  lhs <- as.list(substitute(lhs))
  if (length(lhs) > 1)
    lhs <- lhs[-1]
  if (length(lhs) == 1) {
    do.call(`=`, list(lhs[[1]], rhs), envir=frame)
    return(invisible(NULL)) 
  }
  if (is.function(rhs) || is(rhs, 'formula'))
    rhs <- list(rhs)
  if (length(lhs) > length(rhs))
    rhs <- c(rhs, rep(list(NULL), length(lhs) - length(rhs)))
  for (i in 1:length(lhs))
    do.call(`=`, list(lhs[[i]], rhs[[i]]), envir=frame)
  return(invisible(NULL)) 
}

With that in hand, you can do what you're after:

functionReturningTwoValues <- function() {
  return(list(1, matrix(0, 2, 2)))
}
c(a, b) := functionReturningTwoValues()
a
#[1] 1
b
#     [,1] [,2]
# [1,]    0    0
# [2,]    0    0

I don't know how I feel about that. Perhaps you might find it helpful in your interactive workspace. Using it to build (re-)usable libraries (for mass consumption) might not be the best idea, but I guess that's up to you.

... you know what they say about responsibility and power ...

Solution 3:

Usually I wrap the output into a list, which is very flexible (you can have any combination of numbers, strings, vectors, matrices, arrays, lists, objects int he output)

so like:

func2<-function(input) {
   a<-input+1
   b<-input+2
   output<-list(a,b)
   return(output)
}

output<-func2(5)

for (i in output) {
   print(i)
}

[1] 6
[1] 7

Solution 4:

I put together an R package zeallot to tackle this problem. zeallot includes a multiple assignment or unpacking assignment operator, %<-%. The LHS of the operator is any number of variables to assign, built using calls to c(). The RHS of the operator is a vector, list, data frame, date object, or any custom object with an implemented destructure method (see ?zeallot::destructure).

Here are a handful of examples based on the original post,

library(zeallot)

functionReturningTwoValues <- function() { 
  return(c(1, 2)) 
}

c(a, b) %<-% functionReturningTwoValues()
a  # 1
b  # 2

functionReturningListOfValues <- function() {
  return(list(1, 2, 3))
}

c(d, e, f) %<-% functionReturningListOfValues()
d  # 1
e  # 2
f  # 3

functionReturningNestedList <- function() {
  return(list(1, list(2, 3)))
}

c(f, c(g, h)) %<-% functionReturningNestedList()
f  # 1
g  # 2
h  # 3

functionReturningTooManyValues <- function() {
  return(as.list(1:20))
}

c(i, j, ...rest) %<-% functionReturningTooManyValues()
i     # 1
j     # 2
rest  # list(3, 4, 5, ..)

Check out the package vignette for more information and examples.