vars() seems required for rows_*() but not other functions

[Aariq]

Prework

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• Post a minimal reproducible example so the maintainer can troubleshoot the problems you identify. A reproducible example is:
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Description

Not entirely sure this is a bug, but it is inconsistent. The examples for pointblank use vars() to select columns, but it seems like c() works identically for most functions except rows_distinct() and rows_complete().

Reproducible example

library(pointblank)
agent <- 
  create_agent(
    tbl = small_table
  )

x <- agent %>%
  col_vals_lt(vars(a), value = 10)
x <- agent %>%
  col_vals_lt(c(a), value = 10)

x <- agent %>%
  rows_distinct(vars(a))
x <- agent %>%
  rows_distinct(c(a))
#> Error in rlang::eval_tidy(columns): object 'a' not found

x <- agent %>%
  rows_complete(vars(a))
x <- agent %>%
  rows_complete(c(a))
#> Error in rlang::eval_tidy(columns): object 'a' not found

^{Created on 2022-06-16 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value
#>  version  R version 4.2.0 (2022-04-22)
#>  os       macOS Big Sur/Monterey 10.16
#>  system   x86_64, darwin17.0
#>  ui       X11
#>  language (EN)
#>  collate  en_US.UTF-8
#>  ctype    en_US.UTF-8
#>  tz       America/New_York
#>  date     2022-06-16
#>  pandoc   2.17.1.1 @ /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/quarto/bin/ (via rmarkdown)
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  package     * version     date (UTC) lib source
#>  assertthat    0.2.1       2019-03-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  blastula      0.3.2       2020-05-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  cli           3.3.0       2022-04-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  crayon        1.5.1       2022-03-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  DBI           1.1.2       2021-12-20 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  digest        0.6.29      2021-12-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  dplyr         1.0.9       2022-04-28 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  ellipsis      0.3.2       2021-04-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  evaluate      0.15        2022-02-18 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  fansi         1.0.3       2022-03-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  fastmap       1.1.0       2021-01-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  fs            1.5.2       2021-12-08 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  generics      0.1.2       2022-01-31 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  glue          1.6.2       2022-02-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  highr         0.9         2021-04-16 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  htmltools     0.5.2       2021-08-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  knitr         1.39        2022-04-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  lifecycle     1.0.1       2021-09-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  magrittr      2.0.3       2022-03-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  pillar        1.7.0       2022-02-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  pkgconfig     2.0.3       2019-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  pointblank  * 0.10.0.9000 2022-06-09 [1] Github (rich-iannone/pointblank@2cf8431)
#>  purrr         0.3.4       2020-04-17 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  R6            2.5.1       2021-08-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  reprex        2.0.1       2021-08-05 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  rlang         1.0.2       2022-03-04 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  rmarkdown     2.14        2022-04-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  rstudioapi    0.13        2020-11-12 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  sessioninfo   1.2.2       2021-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  stringi       1.7.6       2021-11-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  stringr       1.4.0       2019-02-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  tibble        3.1.7       2022-05-03 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  tidyselect    1.1.2       2022-02-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  utf8          1.2.2       2021-07-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  vctrs         0.4.1       2022-04-13 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  withr         2.5.0       2022-03-03 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  xfun          0.31        2022-05-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  yaml          2.3.5       2022-02-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#> 
#>  [1] /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/library
#> 
#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Expected result

I would have expected either vars() or c() to work in the columns argument for rows_distinct() as either one works for many other functions in pointblank.

[Aariq]

maybe related to #414

[rich-iannone]

Thanks for submitting this issue and the previous one! Agree that it’s inconsistent and I should be able to address this soon.

[Aariq]

I think I noticed that the segments argument also requires vars() and doesn't work with c()

[rich-iannone]

Thanks @Aariq , I made a new issue to track this. Eventually I do want to get all these column/value inconsistencies fixed up.

Maybe off topic a bit but the place where things are non-ideal is in the value argument in many of the validation functions. It can take either literal values or even columns (where vars() might be best). I have to think a bit more on the UX implications of this doing further work on that, but perhaps there is nothing else that could be done with that particular arg without breaking a lot.

[marianschmidt]

Since vars() is flagged as superseeded in the linked dplyr documentation, maybe better break it now than later.

For all expectations culumn only works with tidyselection helpers or column names, whereas value gives an error when using tidyselect ("must be used within a selecting function") and only works with vars().

[yjunechoe]

Thanks for the patience! This is now supported in devel. columns = vars(a) and columns = c(a) are identical sans the captured user expression:

agent <- 
  create_agent(
    tbl = small_table
  )

x1 <- agent %>%
  rows_distinct(vars(a))
x2 <- agent %>%
  rows_distinct(c(a))

waldo::compare(x1, x2)
#> `old$validation_set$columns_expr`: "vars(a)"
#> `new$validation_set$columns_expr`: "c(a)"

x3 <- agent %>%
  rows_complete(vars(a))
x4 <- agent %>%
  rows_complete(c(a))

waldo::compare(x3, x4)
#> `old$validation_set$columns_expr`: "vars(a)"
#> `new$validation_set$columns_expr`: "c(a)"

We now encourage using c() instead of vars() for column selection (like dplyr::select()). Please file an issue if any vars()->c() conversion breaks your existing code!