How does data.table get the column name from j?

Question

For example:

dt <- data.table()
x=1:5
> dt[,list(2,3,x)]
   V1 V2 x
1:  2  3 1
2:  2  3 2
3:  2  3 3
4:  2  3 4
5:  2  3 5

The resulting data.table has column x

For some reason, I would like to create a function to simplify data.table construction.

tt <- function(a, b, ...){
    list(a=sum(a), b=sum(b), ...)
}

> dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x)]
   a b V3
1: 3 6  1
2: 3 6  2
3: 3 6  3
4: 3 6  4
5: 3 6  5

So whenever I call list, I use tt instead, so it auto inserts predefined columns for me. However, now it doesn't recognize the shortcut naming for x.

How to improve tt to auto name column like list in data.table if it is not too hard?

Aim

dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x)]

Returns

   a b  x
1: 3 6  1
2: 3 6  2
3: 3 6  3
4: 3 6  4
5: 3 6  5

Solution

tt <- function(a, b, ...){
    dots <- list(...)
    inferred <- sapply(substitute(list(...)), function(x) deparse(x)[1])[-1]
    if(is.null(names(inferred))){
        names(dots) <- inferred
    } else {
        names(dots)[names(inferred) == ""] <- inferred[names(inferred) == ""]
    }
    c(a=sum(a), b=sum(b), dots)
}

dt <- data.table(c=1:5)
x=1:5

> dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x,c+1)]
   a b x c + 1
1: 3 6 1     2
2: 3 6 2     3
3: 3 6 3     4
4: 3 6 4     5
5: 3 6 5     6
> dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x, z=c+1)]
   a b x z
1: 3 6 1 2
2: 3 6 2 3
3: 3 6 3 4
4: 3 6 4 5
5: 3 6 5 6

Update

Recently I found that there was some bug in page 46 of S Programming from Venables & Ripley. I made some modifications and put it here. Hopefully it would be useful to some people.

# Get the best names vector for arguments like what data.frame does.
# Modified from page 46 of S Programming from Venables & Ripley.
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20545476/how-does-data-table-get-the-column-name-from-j
name.args <- function(...){
    # Get a list of arguments.
    dots <- as.list(substitute(list(...)))[-1]
    # Get names of the members if they have, otherwise "".
    # If a list have no named members, it returns NULL.
    nm <- names(dots)
    # If all arguments are named, return the names directly.
    # Otherwise it would cause a problem when do nm[logic(0)] <- list().
    if (!is.null(nm) && all(nm != ""))
        return(nm)
    # Handle empty argument list case.
    if (length(dots) == 0)
        return(character(0))
    # Get positions of arguments without names.
    fixup <- 
        if (is.null(nm))
            seq(along=dots)
        else
            nm == ""
    dep <- sapply(dots[fixup], function(x) deparse(x)[1])
    if (is.null(nm))
        dep
    else {
        nm[fixup] <- dep
        nm
    }
}

# Example
# x <- 1:2
# name.args(x, y=3, 5:6)
# name.args(x=x, y=3)
# name.args()

Answer 1

A simple solution would be to pass in additional arguments as named rather than unnamed arguments:

dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x=x)]   ## Note that this uses `x=x` rather than just `x`
#    a b x
# 1: 3 6 1
# 2: 3 6 2
# 3: 3 6 3
# 4: 3 6 4
# 5: 3 6 5

Or for the truly lazy, something like this ;)

tt <- function(a, b, ...){
    dots <- list(...)
    names(dots) <- as.character(substitute(list(...))[-1])
    c(a=sum(a), b=sum(b), dots)
}
dt[,tt(1:2,1:3,x)]
#    a b x
# 1: 3 6 1
# 2: 3 6 2
# 3: 3 6 3
# 4: 3 6 4
# 5: 3 6 5