2.26 Simplifying Commands
REVIEW By attaching the dplyr (Wickham, François, et al. 2026) package we can drop the package name prefix for any commands from the package. Similarly by attaching rattle (G. Williams 2026) we can drop the package name prefix from the name of the dataset. Our previous dplyr::glimpse() command can be simplified.
## Rows: 275,410
## Columns: 24
## $ Date <date> 2008-12-01, 2008-12-02, 2008-12-03, 2008-12-04, 2008-12…
## $ Location <chr> "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albur…
## $ MinTemp <dbl> 13.4, 7.4, 12.9, 9.2, 17.5, 14.6, 14.3, 7.7, 9.7, 13.1, …
## $ MaxTemp <dbl> 22.9, 25.1, 25.7, 28.0, 32.3, 29.7, 25.0, 26.7, 31.9, 30…
## $ Rainfall <dbl> 0.6, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.2, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.4, 0.0, 2…
## $ Evaporation <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ Sunshine <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ WindGustDir <ord> W, WNW, WSW, NE, W, WNW, W, W, NNW, W, N, NNE, W, SW, NA…
## $ WindGustSpeed <dbl> 44, 44, 46, 24, 41, 56, 50, 35, 80, 28, 30, 31, 61, 44, …
## $ WindDir9am <ord> W, NNW, W, SE, ENE, W, SW, SSE, SE, S, SSE, NE, NNW, W, …
## $ WindDir3pm <ord> WNW, WSW, WSW, E, NW, W, W, W, NW, SSE, ESE, ENE, NNW, S…
## $ WindSpeed9am <dbl> 20, 4, 19, 11, 7, 19, 20, 6, 7, 15, 17, 15, 28, 24, 4, N…
## $ WindSpeed3pm <dbl> 24, 22, 26, 9, 20, 24, 24, 17, 28, 11, 6, 13, 28, 20, 30…
## $ Humidity9am <int> 71, 44, 38, 45, 82, 55, 49, 48, 42, 58, 48, 89, 76, 65, …
## $ Humidity3pm <int> 22, 25, 30, 16, 33, 23, 19, 19, 9, 27, 22, 91, 93, 43, 3…
## $ Pressure9am <dbl> 1007.7, 1010.6, 1007.6, 1017.6, 1010.8, 1009.2, 1009.6, …
## $ Pressure3pm <dbl> 1007.1, 1007.8, 1008.7, 1012.8, 1006.0, 1005.4, 1008.2, …
## $ Cloud9am <int> 8, NA, NA, NA, 7, NA, 1, NA, NA, NA, NA, 8, 8, NA, NA, 0…
## $ Cloud3pm <int> NA, NA, 2, NA, 8, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 8, 8, 7, NA, N…
## $ Temp9am <dbl> 16.9, 17.2, 21.0, 18.1, 17.8, 20.6, 18.1, 16.3, 18.3, 20…
## $ Temp3pm <dbl> 21.8, 24.3, 23.2, 26.5, 29.7, 28.9, 24.6, 25.5, 30.2, 28…
## $ RainToday <fct> No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, Y…
## $ RISK_MM <dbl> 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.2, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.4, 0.0, 2.2, 1…
## $ RainTomorrow <fct> No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, Yes, …We can actually simplify this a little more. Often for a command we don’t have to explicitly name all of the arguments. In the following example we drop the package= and the x= arguments as the commands themselves know what to expect implicitly.
# Load packages from the local library into the R session.
library(dplyr)
library(rattle)
# Review the dataset.
glimpse(weatherAUS)## Rows: 275,410
## Columns: 24
## $ Date <date> 2008-12-01, 2008-12-02, 2008-12-03, 2008-12-04, 2008-12…
## $ Location <chr> "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albury", "Albur…
## $ MinTemp <dbl> 13.4, 7.4, 12.9, 9.2, 17.5, 14.6, 14.3, 7.7, 9.7, 13.1, …
## $ MaxTemp <dbl> 22.9, 25.1, 25.7, 28.0, 32.3, 29.7, 25.0, 26.7, 31.9, 30…
## $ Rainfall <dbl> 0.6, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.2, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.4, 0.0, 2…
## $ Evaporation <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ Sunshine <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ WindGustDir <ord> W, WNW, WSW, NE, W, WNW, W, W, NNW, W, N, NNE, W, SW, NA…
## $ WindGustSpeed <dbl> 44, 44, 46, 24, 41, 56, 50, 35, 80, 28, 30, 31, 61, 44, …
## $ WindDir9am <ord> W, NNW, W, SE, ENE, W, SW, SSE, SE, S, SSE, NE, NNW, W, …
## $ WindDir3pm <ord> WNW, WSW, WSW, E, NW, W, W, W, NW, SSE, ESE, ENE, NNW, S…
## $ WindSpeed9am <dbl> 20, 4, 19, 11, 7, 19, 20, 6, 7, 15, 17, 15, 28, 24, 4, N…
## $ WindSpeed3pm <dbl> 24, 22, 26, 9, 20, 24, 24, 17, 28, 11, 6, 13, 28, 20, 30…
## $ Humidity9am <int> 71, 44, 38, 45, 82, 55, 49, 48, 42, 58, 48, 89, 76, 65, …
## $ Humidity3pm <int> 22, 25, 30, 16, 33, 23, 19, 19, 9, 27, 22, 91, 93, 43, 3…
## $ Pressure9am <dbl> 1007.7, 1010.6, 1007.6, 1017.6, 1010.8, 1009.2, 1009.6, …
## $ Pressure3pm <dbl> 1007.1, 1007.8, 1008.7, 1012.8, 1006.0, 1005.4, 1008.2, …
## $ Cloud9am <int> 8, NA, NA, NA, 7, NA, 1, NA, NA, NA, NA, 8, 8, NA, NA, 0…
## $ Cloud3pm <int> NA, NA, 2, NA, 8, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 8, 8, 7, NA, N…
## $ Temp9am <dbl> 16.9, 17.2, 21.0, 18.1, 17.8, 20.6, 18.1, 16.3, 18.3, 20…
## $ Temp3pm <dbl> 21.8, 24.3, 23.2, 26.5, 29.7, 28.9, 24.6, 25.5, 30.2, 28…
## $ RainToday <fct> No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, Y…
## $ RISK_MM <dbl> 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.2, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.4, 0.0, 2.2, 1…
## $ RainTomorrow <fct> No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, Yes, …% “start up” is a verb, “start-up” is an adjective and “startup” is a noun.
A number of packages are automatically attached when R starts. The first stringi::search() command above returned a vector of packages and since we had yet to attach any further packages those listed are the ones automatically attached. One of those is the base (R Core Team 2026) package which provides the base::library() command.
References
R Core Team. 2026. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://doi.org/10.32614/R.manuals.
Wickham, Hadley, Romain François, Lionel Henry, Kirill Müller, and Davis Vaughan. 2026. Dplyr: A Grammar of Data Manipulation. https://dplyr.tidyverse.org.
Williams, Graham. 2026. Rattle: R Data Science Supporting Rattle. https://togaware.com/projects/rattle/.
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