R Coding Practices

R Coding Practices

Application skill for R style learning (from the archived awesome-guidelines style capsules). Default to tidyverse + styler/lintr; when project declares Google R guide, apply BigCamelCase functions, explicit return(), and pkg::fun() qualification.

Core Principle

R analysis quality is consistent formatting + pipe-clear data flow, <- and snake_case objects, native |>, documented exports, mechanical styler/lintr gates.

When to Use / NOT

• R scripts, R packages, Quarto/Rmd analysis repos, Shiny apps.
• Setting up styler, lintr, testthat, R CMD check in CI.

NOT when:

• Renviron/secrets, never commit credentials.
• Generated .Rd/NAMESPACE-only churn, validate hand-edited .R.

Workflow

1. Syntax, spacing, braces, <- (r-style-formatting-syntax.md).
2. Naming/files, snake_case vs BigCamelCase policy (r-style-naming-files.md).
3. Functions/pipes, |>, returns, control (r-style-functions-pipes.md).
4. Docs/verify, roxygen, styler, lintr (r-style-docs-verify.md).
5. Verify, styler, lintr, tests on changed files.

Red Flags

• = assignment
• T/F instead of TRUE/FALSE
• Tabs or inconsistent indent vs 2-space styler profile
• Misaligned closing brace
• Dots in function names (non-S3)
• Mixed tidyverse snake and Google Camel function names
• %>% in new code without magrittr feature need
• Right-hand pipe -> (Google forbid)
• Implicit return in Google-baseline functions
• Missing explicit return() in Google-baseline functions
• Unqualified external functions in Google codebase
• Blanket @import package (Google)
• attach()
• Semicolons or multiple statements per line
• Single-line braced if/else bodies (except expression form)
• if (length(x)) without explicit comparison
• &/| inside scalar if
• Same-line if (x) return(x)
• Partial argument matching
• Assignment inside function call
• Overlong unbroken pipes/calls
• ~ lambdas instead of \() for new short anonymous functions
• Spaces inside {{ embracing }}
• Shadowing c, mean, data
• final/final2 filenames
• Libraries scattered mid-file
• Undocumented @export
• Missing pkg:: qualification (Google)
• No styler/lintr in CI for team projects

Verification

• styler::style_file() or style_pkg() on changed paths
• lintr::lint() with project .lintr config
• devtools::test() / R CMD check for packages
• Roxygen coverage on new exports
• Capsule checklist on declared baseline (tidyverse vs Google)

References

• awesome-guidelines/references/r-style-learning-note.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/r-style-formatting-syntax.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/r-style-naming-files.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/r-style-functions-pipes.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/r-style-docs-verify.md