fcp {fcp}

Function Composition

Description

Given calls f(., a=A) and g(., b=B), compose function(.) g(f(., a=A), b=B).

Usage

fcp(f, g) # or f %.% g

f %.% g

Arguments

f

left–operand: inner call to giver a result first.

g

right-operand: outer call to receirve that result.

Details

By default, fcp is asigned to operator ⁠%.%⁠ so a final function can be constructed from a chain of more than two calls, just like a chain of |> without input or a chain of %>% with . as the special input.

fcp is best used to quickly create anonymous functions from existing ones as input of functional programming tools like base::apply, base::sapply, and base::lapply, etc. Should the composed function be saved for reuse, its body shall retain the original syntax of component function calls as closely as possible.

Like %>%, fcp allows a downstream call to use . to refer to input from its immediate upstream call, and pipe the input into any slot in the downstream call's list of arguments while transforming the same input through expressions of .; when no transformation is needed, fcp allows unchanged input be piped into all empty slots in the argument list (e.g., fun(x=1, y=, z=2) for named slots, or fun(1, , z=2) for positinal slots).

Like %>%, when no explicit reference to the output of the uptream call is used, the results is then piped into the first available positional argument of the downstream call, and a call with a lone input can be shorterned to function names without parentheses.

Later calls in a fcp chain can refer to earlier calls by numerical symbols, so n refers to the result of nth call in the chain and0 refers to initial input, allowing more flexablity than a strice "upstream to downstream" pipe.

Value

composite function g(f(x, ...), ...)

Examples

## ex1: match and extract date (pipe the initial input at differnt stage).
x <- c("2023-01-01", "2022/12/31", "2002-07-02")
p <- "^([0-9]{2,4})[-/]([0-9]{1,2})[-/]([0-9]{1,2})$"
## reference usage: input x appeared twice
(a0 <- do.call(rbind, regmatches(x, regexec(p, x))))
## composed function 1: blank as input from upstream, `0` as initial input.
(f1 <- regexec(p,  ) %.% regmatches(`0`,  ) %.% do.call(rbind,  ))
(a1 <- f1(x))
## composed function 2: dot refer to upstream, `0` as initial input.
(f2 <- regexec(p, .) %.% regmatches(`0`, .) %.% do.call(rbind, .))
(a2 <- f2(x))
## composed function 3: use of named argument, `0` as initial input.
(f3 <- regexec(pa=p) %.% regmatches(x =`0`) %.% do.call(wh=rbind))
(a3 <- f3(x))

## ex2: date given days since 2000-010-1 (shorthand form of function calls)
(g1 <- as.Date(origin="2000-01-01") %.% f2()) # reused composed `f2`
(b1 <- g1(364))
(g2 <- as.Date(origin="2000-01-01") %.% f2)   # omit ()
(b2 <- g2(364))

## ex3: wrap, pad, and upcase the strings (`sapply` uses composed function)
words <- c("Hellow World!", "Good Morning!")
s0 <- sapply(words, function(x)
{
    toupper(paste(format(strwrap(x, 8), w=12, just="c"), collapse="\n"))
})
cat(s0, sep="\n---- s0 ----\n")
s1 <- sapply(words, strwrap(8) %.% format(w=12, just="c") %.%
                    paste(collapse="\n") %.% toupper)
cat(s1, sep="\n---- s1 ----\n")

## check equivalance
all(a1==a0) && all(a2==a0) && all(a3==a0) && all(b1==b2) && all(s1==s0)