functions used in formula= argument in defData not available for functions defined out of global namespace

[NielsKrarup]

When using a function in the quoted formula= functionality it seems to me that this expects the function to be available not where defData is called but in global environment, or some other place.

I have added code reproducing the error below.

Thanks,

Niels

# insert reprex here

library(simstudy)
packageVersion("simstudy") #[1] ‘0.6.0’

hello <- function(){
  myinv <- function(x) {
    1/x
  }
  
  def <- defData(varname = "age", formula = 10, variance = 2,
                 dist = "normal")
  def <- defData(def, varname = "loginvage", formula = "log(myinv(age))",
                 variance = 0.1, dist = "normal")
  
  genData(5, def)
}

hello()

[kgoldfeld]

Yes - you are right, it does expect the function to be in the global environment. I will need to fix that. Thanks.

[NielsKrarup]

Also thanks for a nice package!

[assignUser]

Ah, this only works with variables but not with functions because we only use envvir from genData to evaluate the ..vars and don't pass it on to the actual formula evaluation. So we need to pass envvir into .evalWith as a new argument and add that everywhere it's called and add parent = envvir to list2env in .evalWith

simstudy/R/internal_utility.R

Line 66 in 8ee0284

e <- list2env(extVars)

[kgoldfeld]

That is exactly the approach I took. You can take a look to see if I did this correctly in the branch. It seems to work just fine, though there is some issue with genSurv and one other function that I need to resolve (it failed 4 tests) - none related to genData.

[assignUser]

Nice! Seems correct to me, maybe something local? You could open a PR and we can see what CI does?

[kgoldfeld]

I figured it out - there's an extra argument n, which was not used in some calls to .evalWih, so the environment was getting passed as n. I've fixed and pushed. Tomorrow, I will let you know when it is ready for merging - still need to update news, run checks, etc.

[kgoldfeld]

@NielsKrarup This issue has been fixed - and is available in the development version of simstudy. I will be submitting this version to CRAN in the next few days if you'd prefer to wait for that.