Can I rename keywords in R?

Question

I would like to achieve something like this:

se    <- .Primitive("if")
senao <- .Primitive("else") # I get an error here
para  <- .Primitive("if")

# The code I would like to run
se (1 == 1){
  # Some code
} senao {
  #more code
}

# This also doesn't work
para(1 in 1:3)
{
  print(i)
}

I would like to use the mechanism above to teach children who don't know how to speak English yet how to program. Thanks in advance.

You can rename built-in *functions* e.g. `v <- c` allows for `v(4,5,6)` — John Coleman, Mar 27 '18 at 16:16
Yes, I noticed that I can rename functions. However, if I can't rename all of the keywords I still have an issue :( — Lucio Carlos Pimentel Paiva, Mar 27 '18 at 16:19
R only has about 5 such words, and they are very short. Would it really be that much of an obstacle even for a child? — John Coleman, Mar 27 '18 at 16:23
If you are using RStudio, you could use Code Snippets with names like `senao`. See [this](https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/204463668-Code-Snippets) for how to customize snippets. One of the built-in snippets allows `el` to be used for `else`. This seems like a lot of trouble for little gain, but might be useful to you. — John Coleman, Mar 27 '18 at 17:05
Some relevant discussion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/202723/coding-in-other-spoken-languages — Brian, Mar 27 '18 at 17:25

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '18 at 16:12

3

Nope. This is not possible in R. The parser has special cases for certain keywords. They cannot be changed (without altering the source code for R and compiling your own unique version).

answered Mar 27 '18 at 16:12

MrFlick

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Do you know whether I can do this in another high level language with simple syntax? – Lucio Carlos Pimentel Paiva Mar 27 '18 at 16:14
1

Maybe a language that uses macros like C or C++. But I am not an expert on all other high level languages. – MrFlick Mar 27 '18 at 16:16

Can I rename keywords in R?

1 Answers1