Introduction to qenv
A qenv
is an R object which contains code and an
environment and can be used to create reproducible outputs.
Initialization
The new_qenv()
function serves as the gateway to create
an initial qenv
object:
library(teal.code)
# can be created without any code/environment
empty_qenv <- new_qenv()
print(empty_qenv)
## <environment: 0x5616a4aa92b0> [L]
## Parent: <environment: package:teal.code>
# or can be created with objects inside the environment
my_qenv <- new_qenv(env = list2env(list(x = 5)), code = "x <- 5")
print(my_qenv)
## <environment: 0x5616a2fd7808> [L]
## Parent: <environment: package:teal.code>
## Bindings:
## • x: <dbl> [L]
For enhanced reproducibility, it’s crucial to provide the code used
to generate objects when creating a qenv
with objects
inside the environment. This responsibility falls upon the user.
qenv
basic usage
The eval_code()
function executes code within a
qenv
environment, yielding a new qenv
object
as the output.
library(magrittr)
q2 <- eval_code(my_qenv, "y <- x * 2") %>% eval_code("z <- y * 2")
# my_qenv still contains only x
print(my_qenv)
## <environment: 0x5616a2fd7808> [L]
## Parent: <environment: package:teal.code>
## Bindings:
## • x: <dbl> [L]
# q2 contains x, y and z
print(q2)
## <environment: 0x5616a3964c78> [L]
## Parent: <environment: package:magrittr>
## Bindings:
## • x: <dbl> [L]
## • y: <dbl> [L]
## • z: <dbl> [L]
To extract objects from a qenv
, use [[
;
this is particularly useful for displaying them in a shiny
app. You can retrieve the code used to generate the qenv
using the get_code()
function.
print(q2[["y"]])
## [1] 10
## x <- 5
## y <- x * 2
## z <- y * 2
Combining qenv
objects
Given a pair of qenv
objects, you may be able to “join”
them, creating a new qenv
object encompassing the union of
both environments, along with the requisite code for reproduction:
common_q <- eval_code(new_qenv(), quote(x <- 1))
x_q <- eval_code(common_q, quote(y <- 5))
y_q <- eval_code(common_q, quote(z <- 5))
join_q <- join(x_q, y_q)
print(join_q)
## <environment: 0x5616a4581680>
## Parent: <environment: package:magrittr>
## Bindings:
## • x: <dbl>
## • y: <dbl>
## • z: <dbl>
The feasibility of joining qenv
objects hinges on the
contents of the environments and the code’s order. Refer to the function
documentation for further details..
Warnings and messages in qenv
objects
In cases where warnings or messages arise while evaluating code
within a qenv
environment, these are captured and stored
within the qenv
object. Access these messages and warnings
using the @
operator.
## [1] "> this is a message\n"
## [1] "> and this is a warning\n"
If a particular line of code doesn’t trigger any warnings or messages, the corresponding message/warning value will be an empty string.
q_message@warnings
## [1] ""
q_warning@messages
## [1] ""
Additionally, a helper function, get_warnings()
, is
available to generate a formatted string comprising the warnings and the
code responsible for generating them. It returns NULL
when
no warnings are present.
Utilizing qenv
inside shiny
applications
These functions can be seamlessly integrated into shiny
applications to produce reproducible outputs. In the example below, the
rcode
section showcases the code employed for generating
the output.
When employing a qenv
to evaluate code, should an error
occur, an object of type qenv.error
is generated. This
object can be utilized wherever a qenv
object is used,
alleviating the need for code alterations to handle these errors. Select
the error_option
in the example below to witness
qenv
error handling in action.
library(shiny)
library(magrittr)
# create an initial qenv with the data in
data_q <- new_qenv() %>% eval_code("iris_data <- iris")
ui <- fluidPage(
radioButtons(
"option", "Choose a column to plot:",
c("Sepal.Length", "Sepal.Width", "Petal.Length", "Petal.Width", "error_option")
),
verbatimTextOutput("rcode"),
plotOutput("plot")
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
# create a qenv containing the reproducible output
output_q <- reactive({
req(input$option)
eval_code(
data_q,
bquote(p <- hist(iris_data[, .(input$option)]))
)
})
# display output
output$plot <- renderPlot(output_q()[["p"]])
# display code
output$rcode <- renderText(get_code(output_q()))
}
if (interactive()) {
shinyApp(ui, server)
}
qenv
and teal
applications
The versatile qenv
object can seamlessly integrate into
teal modules. Explore the teal vignette Creating
Custom Modules for detailed guidance.