interpChar: Interpolate between numbers or numbers of characters

Description

For x and y logical, integer, numeric, Date or POSIX:

xOut <- x*(1-.proportion) + y*.proportion

Otherwise, coerce to character and return a substring of x or y with number of characters interpolating linearly between nchar(x) and nchar(y); see details.

*** NOTE: This function is currently in flux. The results may not match the documentation and may change in the future.

The current version does character interpolation on the cumulative number of characters with defaults with only one argument that may not be easy to understand and use. Proposed:

old: interpolate on number of characters in each string with the default for a missing argument being character(length(x)) [or character(length(y)) or numeric(length(x)) or ...]

2014-08-08: default with either x or y missing should be to set the other to the one we have, so interpChar becomes a no op -- except that values with .proportion outside ("validProportion" = [0, 1] by default) should be dropped.

Usage

interpChar(x, ...)
# S3 method for list
interpChar(x, .proportion, 
        argnames=character(3), message0=character(0), ...)
# S3 method for default
interpChar(x, y, .proportion, 
        argnames=character(3), message0=character(0), ...)

Arguments

either a vector or a list. If a list, pass the first two elements as the first two arguments of interpChar.default.

a vector

.proportion

A number or numeric vector assumed to be between 0 and 1.

argnames

a character vector of length 3 giving argumentss name.x, name.y, and .proportion to pass to compareLengths to improve the value of any diagnostic message in case lengths are not compatible.

message0

A character string to be passed with argnames to compareLengths to improve the value of any diagnostic message in case lengths are not compatible.

…

optional arguments for compareLengths

Value

A vector: Numeric if x and y are both numeric and character otherwise. The length = max length of x, y, and .proportion.

Details

1. x, y and .proportion are first compared for compatible lengths using compareLengths. A warning is issued if the lengths are not compatible. They are then all extended to the same length using rep.

2. If x and y are both numeric, interpChar returns the standard linear interpolation (described above).

3. If x, y, and .proportion are all provided with at least one of x and y not being numeric or logical, the algorithm does linear interpolation on the difference in the number of characters between x and y. It returns characters from y except when nchar(x) > nchar(y), in which case it returns characters from x. This meets the end conditions that the number of characters matches that of x when .proportion is 0 and matches that of y when .proportion is 1. This can be used to "erase" characters moving from one frame to the next in a video. See the examples.

4. If either x or y is missing, it is replaced by a default vector of the same type and length; for example, if y is missing and x is numeric, y = numeric(length(x)). (If the one supplied is not numeric or logical, it is coerced to character.)

Examples

Run this code

# NOT RUN {
##
## 1.  numerics 
## 
# 1.1.  standard 
xNum <- interpChar(1:3, 4:5, (0:3)/4)
# answer 
xN. <- c(1, 2.75, 3.5, 4)
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(xNum, xN.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
# 1.2.  list of length 1 with a numeric vector: 
#       return that vector with a warning
xN1 <- interpChar(list(a.0=1:4), .5)
# answer 
xN1. <- 1:4
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(xN1, xN1.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 2.  Single character vector 
##
i.5 <- interpChar(list(c('a', 'bc', 'def')), .p=0.3)
# If cumulative characters:  
#        0.3*(total 6 characters) = 1.8 characters
#
# However, the current code does something different, 
# returning "a", "bc", "d" <- like using 1-.p?  
# This is a problem with the defaults with a single 
# argument;  ignore this issue for now.  
# 2014-06-04
i.5. <- c('a', 'b', '')
# }
# NOT RUN {
<!-- %\dontshow{stopifnot(} -->
# }
# NOT RUN {
#all.equal(i.5, i.5.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
<!-- %\dontshow{)} -->
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 3.  Reverse character example 
##
i.5c <- interpChar(c('a', 'bc', 'def'), '', 0.3)
# check:  0.7*(total 6 characers) = 4.2 characters
i.5c. <- c('a', 'bc', 'd')
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(i.5c, i.5c.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
#  The same thing specified in a list 
i.5d <- interpChar(list(c('a', 'bc', 'def'), ''), 0.3)
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(i.5d, i.5c.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 4.  More complicated example
##
xCh <- interpChar(list(c('Do it', 'with R.')), 
                  c(0, .5, .9)) 
# answer 
xCh. <- c('', 'with', 'Do ') 
# With only one input, it's assumed to be y.  
# It is replicated to length(.proportion), 
# With nchar = 5, 7, 5, cum = 5, 12, 17.  
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(xCh, xCh.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 5.  Still more complicated 
##
xC2 <- interpChar(c('a', 'fabulous', 'bug'), 
                  c('bigger or', 'just', 'big'), 
                  c(.3, .3, 1) )
# answer 
x.y.longer <- c('bigger or', 'fabulous', 'big')
# use y with ties 
# nch smaller        1          4         3
# nch larger         9          8         3
# d.char             8,         4,        0 
# cum characters     8,        12,       12 
# prop              .3,        .7,        1 
# prop*12          3.6,       8.4,       12
# cum.sm             1,         5,        8
# cum.sm+prop*12     5,        13,       20
#   -cum(larger[-1]) 5,         4,        3
xC2. <- c('bigge', 'fabu', 'big')                 
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(xC2, xC2.)
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 6.  with one NULL 
##
null1 <- interpChar(NULL, 1, 1)
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(null1, 1)
# }
# NOT RUN {
null2 <- interpChar('abc', NULL, .3)
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(null2, 'ab')
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 7.  length=0 
##
log0 <- interpChar(logical(0), 2, .6)
# }
# NOT RUN {
all.equal(log0, 1.2)
# }
# NOT RUN {
##
## 8.  Date
##



##
## 9.  POSIXct 
##

# }