masking conflicts

Question

When loading a .csv with sqldf, everything goes fine until I load data.table. For example:

library(sqldf)
write.table(trees, file="trees.csv", row.names=FALSE, col.names=FALSE, sep=",")
my.df <- read.csv.sql("trees.csv", "select * from file", 
        header = FALSE, row.names = FALSE)

works, while

library(data.table)
my.df <- read.csv.sql("trees.csv", "select * from file", 
        header = FALSE, row.names = FALSE)
# Error in list(...)[[1]] : subscript out of bounds

Doesn't. When loaded, data.table informs you that

The following object(s) are masked from 'package:base':

   cbind, rbind

So, I tried this

rbind <- base::rbind  # `unmask` rbind from base::
library(data.table)
my.df <- read.csv.sql("trees.csv", "select * from file", 
        header = FALSE, row.names = FALSE)
rbind <- data.table::rbind # `mask` rbind with data.table::rbind

which works. Before I litter all my code with this trick:

What is the best practise solution to deal with masking conflicts in R?

EDIT: There is a closely related thread here, but no general solution is suggested.

Answer 1

As per the comments, yes, please file a bug report :

bug.report(package="data.table")

That way it won't be forgotten, you'll get an automatic email each time the status changes and you can reopen it if the fix proves to be insufficient.

EDIT:

Now in v1.6.7 on R-Forge :

• Compatibility with package sqldf (which can call do.call("rbind",...) on an empty ...) is fixed and test added. data.table was switching on list(...)[[1]] rather than ..1. Thanks to RYogi for reporting #1623.