This function is no longer available in the sm package. It should be replaced by the use of attach, if necessary. Each dataset now also has its own help file.
It was a utility function, widely used in the scripts accompanying
the book described below. The function provided access to the dataset identified by name. For flexibility, the datasets were provided in ASCII form, with the name of each variable listed in the first row of the file. This function reads the files and makes the data available as a data frame.
provide.data(data, path, options = list())none
name of the data to be loaded and attached as data.frame
the path where the data and its documentation should be searched for,
The default value is an appropriate sub-directory of the sm package.
A list of options passed to sm.options. The one used is
describe, a logical flag. If describe=TRUE (default), a
documentation file of the data is searched and printed, if available.
messages are printed on the command window, describing progress of
the operation. If describe=TRUE and a documentation file exists, this
is printed on the command windows or another windows, depending on
the type of platform where the program is executed.
Bowman, A.W. and Azzalini, A.
the data file is assumed to be called data.dat and the documentation
file describing the data (if present) is assumed to be called data.doc.
If the data.frame is already attached, it is re-attached in the second
position of the search list.
To set describe=FALSE for the rest of the current session, use
sm.options(describe=FALSE)
The function can easily be adapted to play a similar role for other packages.
data.frame, attach, sm,
sm.options