rlistviewdesctoolse1071

Why do the "DescTools" & "e1071" packages cause an error when trying to view lists containing dist objects?

I have the following dataframe, 'A'. I calculate a distance matrix 'B' from it. Then I add that distance matrix 'B' to a list 'C' and view it.

A <- data.frame(x = c(1:10),
                y = c(21:30))

B <- dist(A)

C <- list(B)

View(C)

So far so good. No problems, all is well. But once I load either the package "DescTools" or "e1071" and perform the exact same actions, I get an error.

library("e1071")

A <- data.frame(x = c(1:10),
                y = c(21:30))

B <- dist(A)

C <- list(B)

View(C)

Error in .Primitive("[")(x, 1:6, , drop = FALSE) : incorrect number of dimensions

However, when I directly call the list, or the distance matrix in the list, I still get a return without error:

C[[1]]
1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8         9
2   1.414214                                                                                
3   2.828427  1.414214                                                                      
4   4.242641  2.828427  1.414214                                                            
5   5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214                                                  
6   7.071068  5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214                                        
7   8.485281  7.071068  5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214                              
8   9.899495  8.485281  7.071068  5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214                    
9  11.313708  9.899495  8.485281  7.071068  5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214          
10 12.727922 11.313708  9.899495  8.485281  7.071068  5.656854  4.242641  2.828427  1.414214

What's also baffling me is that even if I unload the packages with detach(), the error remains.

library("DescTools")
detach("package:DescTools", unload=TRUE)

A <- data.frame(x = c(1:10),
                y = c(21:30))

B <- dist(A)

C <- list(B)

View(C)

Once I restart the session, and refrain from loading either package, it works again.

I tested all other packages I use. None cause this behaviour. I loaded the "e1071" package originally to use its kurtosis and skewness function. When I tracked down this error to this particular package, I eventually downloaded the "DescTools" package instead to avoid the error as it offers the same functions. However, it causes the same issue.

Is there some fix for this? Am I being stupid and there is something obvious I'm missing? I'm no programmer/coder/scripter, but usually I can piece together what I need from on here. I found nothing to help me with this though and this error is starting to get frustrating when I try to quickly check my lists. Thanks in advance.

Solution

  • Not sure if this counts as an answer because I cannot solve your problem, but I think I can explain it.

    If you use utils::View(C) instead of just View(C), I run into the same error, regardless of packages loaded. According to this comment, RStudio provides its own viewer which can show lists and other stuff and overrules View unless called via the namespace utils::View. You also get this version of the function when you run your code in R outside of RStudio.

    So apparently, loading the DescTools or e1071 packages also forces the use of the original View function because both import the utils package (which is usually already loaded by default in R).