FilterRules-class {S4Vectors} | R Documentation

## Collection of Filter Rules

### Description

A `FilterRules` object is a collection of filter rules, which can be either `expression` or `function` objects. Rules can be disabled/enabled individually, facilitating experimenting with different combinations of filters.

### Details

It is common to split a dataset into subsets during data analysis. When data is large, however, representing subsets (e.g. by logical vectors) and storing them as copies might become too costly in terms of space. The `FilterRules` class represents subsets as lightweight `expression` and/or `function` objects. Subsets can then be calculated when needed (on the fly). This avoids copying and storing a large number of subsets. Although it might take longer to frequently recalculate a subset, it often is a relatively fast operation and the space savings tend to be more than worth it when data is large.

Rules may be either expressions or functions. Evaluating an expression or invoking a function should result in a logical vector. Expressions are often more convenient, but functions (i.e. closures) are generally safer and more powerful, because the user can specify the enclosing environment. If a rule is an expression, it is evaluated inside the `envir` argument to the `eval` method (see below). If a function, it is invoked with `envir` as its only argument. See examples.

### Accessor methods

In the code snippets below, `x` is a `FilterRules` object.

  `active(x)`: Get the logical vector of length `length(x)`, where `TRUE` for an element indicates that the corresponding rule in `x` is active (and inactive otherwise). Note that `names(active(x))` is equal to `names(x)`.

  `active(x) <- value`: Replace the active state of the filter rules. If `value` is a logical vector, it should be of length `length(x)` and indicate which rules are active. Otherwise, it can be either numeric or character vector, in which case it sets the indicated rules (after dropping NA's) to active and all others to inactive. See examples.

### Constructor

  `FilterRules(exprs = list(), ..., active = TRUE)`: Constructs a `FilterRules` with the rules given in the list `exprs` or in `...`. The initial active state of the rules is given by `active`, which is recycled as necessary. Elements in `exprs` may be either character (parsed into an expression), a language object (coerced to an expression), an expression, or a function that takes at least one argument. IMPORTANTLY, all arguments in `...` are `quote()`'d and then coerced to an expression. So, for example, character data is only parsed if it is a literal. The names of the filters are taken from the names of `exprs` and `...`, if given. Otherwise, the character vectors take themselves as their name and the others are deparsed (before any coercion). Thus, it is recommended to always specify meaningful names. In any case, the names are made valid and unique.

### Subsetting and Replacement

In the code snippets below, `x` is a `FilterRules` object.

  `x[i]`: Subsets the filter rules using the same interface as for `Vector`.

  `x[[i]]`: Extracts an expression or function via the same interface as for `List`.

  `x[[i]] <- value`: The same interface as for `List`. The default active state for new rules is `TRUE`.

### Concatenation

In the code snippets below, `x` is a `FilterRules` object.

  `c(x, ..., recursive = FALSE)`: Concatenates the `FilterRule` instances in `...` onto the end of `x`.

  `append(x, values, after = length(x))`: Appends the `values` `FilterRules` instance onto `x` at the index given by `after`.

### Evaluating

  `eval(expr, envir = parent.frame(), enclos = if (is.list(envir) || is.pairlist(envir)) parent.frame() else baseenv())`: Evaluates a `FilterRules` instance (passed as the `expr` argument). Expression rules are evaluated in `envir`, while function rules are invoked with `envir` as their only argument. The evaluation of a rule should yield a logical vector. The results from the rule evaluations are combined via the AND operation (i.e. `&`) so that a single logical vector is returned from `eval`.

  `evalSeparately(expr, envir = parent.frame(), enclos = if (is.list(envir) || is.pairlist(envir)) parent.frame() else baseenv())`: Evaluates separately each rule in a `FilterRules` instance (passed as the `expr` argument). Expression rules are evaluated in `envir`, while function rules are invoked with `envir` as their only argument. The evaluation of a rule should yield a logical vector. The results from the rule evaluations are combined into a logical matrix, with a column for each rule. This is essentially the parallel evaluator, while `eval` is the serial evaluator.

  `subsetByFilter(x, filter)`: Evaluates `filter` on `x` and uses the result to subset `x`. The result contains only the elements in `x` for which `filter` evaluates to `TRUE`.

  `summary(object, subject)`: Returns an integer vector with the number of elements in `subject` that pass each rule in `object`, along with a count of the elements that pass all filters.

### Filter Closures

When a closure (function) is included as a filter in a `FilterRules` object, it is converted to a `FilterClosure`, which is currently nothing more than a marker class that extends `function`. When a `FilterClosure` filter is extracted, there are some accessors and utilities for manipulating it:

  `params`: Gets a named list of the objects that are present in the enclosing environment (without inheritance). This assumes that a filter is constructed via a constructor function, and the objects in the frame of the constructor (typically, the formal arguments) are the parameters of the filter.

### Author(s)

Michael Lawrence

### See Also

FilterMatrix objects for storing the logical output of a set of FilterRules objects.

### Examples

    ## constructing a FilterRules instance

    ## an empty set of filters
    filters <- FilterRules()

    ## as a simple character vector
    filts <- c("peaks", "promoters")
    filters <- FilterRules(filts)
    active(filters) # all TRUE

    ## with functions and expressions
    filts <- list(peaks = expression(peaks), promoters = expression(promoters),
                  find_eboxes = function(rd) rep(FALSE, nrow(rd)))
    filters <- FilterRules(filts, active = FALSE)
    active(filters) # all FALSE

    ## direct, quoted args (character literal parsed)
    filters <- FilterRules(under_peaks = peaks, in_promoters = "promoters")
    filts <- list(under_peaks = expression(peaks),
                  in_promoters = expression(promoters))

    ## specify both exprs and additional args
    filters <- FilterRules(filts, diffexp = de)

    filts <- c("promoters", "peaks", "introns")
    filters <- FilterRules(filts)

    ## evaluation
    df <- DataFrame(peaks = c(TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, FALSE),
                    promoters = c(TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE),
                    introns = c(TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE))
    eval(filters, df)
    fm <- evalSeparately(filters, df)
    identical(filterRules(fm), filters)
    summary(fm)
    summary(fm, percent = TRUE)
    fm <- evalSeparately(filters, df, serial = TRUE)

    ## set the active state directly

    active(filters) <- FALSE # all FALSE
    active(filters) <- TRUE # all TRUE
    active(filters) <- c(FALSE, FALSE, TRUE)
    active(filters)["promoters"] <- TRUE # use a filter name

    ## toggle the active state by name or index

    active(filters) <- c(NA, 2) # NA's are dropped
    active(filters) <- c("peaks", NA)

[Package S4Vectors version 0.18.3 Index]