FAQ - Note: Using an external vector in selections is ambiguous
With selecting functions like dplyr::select() or
tidyr::pivot_longer(), you can refer to variables by name:
mtcars %>% select(cyl, am, vs) #> # A tibble: 32 x 3 #> cyl am vs #> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> #> 1 6 1 0 #> 2 6 1 0 #> 3 4 1 1 #> 4 6 0 1 #> # ... with 28 more rows mtcars %>% select(mpg:disp) #> # A tibble: 32 x 3 #> mpg cyl disp #> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> #> 1 21 6 160 #> 2 21 6 160 #> 3 22.8 4 108 #> 4 21.4 6 258 #> # ... with 28 more rows
For historical reasons, it is also possible to refer an external vector of variable names. You get the correct result, but with a note informing you that selecting with an external variable is ambiguous because it is not clear whether you want a data frame column or an external object.
vars <- c("cyl", "am", "vs")
result <- mtcars %>% select(vars)
#> Note: Using an external vector in selections is ambiguous.
#> i Use `all_of(vars)` instead of `vars` to silence this message.
#> i See <https://tidyselect.r-lib.org/reference/faq-external-vector.html>.
#> This message is displayed once per session.
This note will become a warning in the future, and then an error. We have decided to deprecate this particular approach to using external vectors because they introduce ambiguity. Imagine that the data frame contains a column with the same name as your external variable.
some_df <- mtcars[1:4, ] some_df$vars <- 1:nrow(some_df)
These are very different objects but it isn’t a problem if the context
forces you to be specific about where to find vars:
vars #> [1] "cyl" "am" "vs" some_df$vars #> [1] 1 2 3 4
In a selection context however, the column wins:
some_df %>% select(vars) #> # A tibble: 4 x 1 #> vars #> <int> #> 1 1 #> 2 2 #> 3 3 #> 4 4
To make your selection code more robust and silence the message, use
all_of() to force the external vector:
some_df %>% select(all_of(vars)) #> # A tibble: 4 x 3 #> cyl am vs #> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> #> 1 6 1 0 #> 2 6 1 0 #> 3 4 1 1 #> 4 6 0 1
For more information or if you have comments about this, please see the Github issue tracking the deprecation process.
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