From ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk  Thu Feb 22 23:54:27 2007
From: ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:54:27 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Rd] Problem with types on 64-bit
In-Reply-To: <jdrobr.ckei5y@webmail.levelelimited.com>
References: <jdrobr.ckei5y@webmail.levelelimited.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0702222247430.27196@gannet.stats.ox.ac.uk>

Neither NULL nor "hello" are valid values for an element of a STRSXP: only 
CHARSXPs are.  So your test is not the correct one: you need to test 
both isString(v_dta_start) and  TYPEOF(STRING_ELT( v_dta_start, 0 )) == 
CHARSXP to be really safe.

Calling STRSXP on a random SEXP is likely to give different results on 
different machines: there is no fundamental 32- vs 64-but difference here.

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007, tom at levelelimited.com wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I have a problem using some working 32-bit R code with 64-bit machine ( I am
> using version R-2.4.1 ).  The problem occurs when I am trying to detect a NULL
> STRSXP type. ( Perhaps I am doing this detection in the wrong way? )
>
> On 32-bit the following works, and correctly identifies if I am passing NULL
> or a valid string object:
>
> if ( v_dta_start != R_NilValue && STRING_ELT( v_dta_start, 0 ) != R_NilValue )
> {
>    dta.start = CHAR( STRING_ELT( v_dta_start, 0 ) );
> }
>
> Yet on a 64-bit machine I get the following errors:
>
> (1) when I pass NULL it goes into the if clause and then when it tries to set
> dta.start it displays:
> CHAR() can only be applied to a 'CHARSXP', not a 'NULL'
> (2) if I pass a valid string such as "hello", I get the following:
> CHAR() can only be applied to a 'CHARSXP', not a 'character'
>
> I have tried converting using AS_CHARACTER but that just brings up the same
> messages.  I have also seen S4 and PROMSXP types come up in these error
> messages.
>
> What I don't understand is why this happens - any ideas?
>
> If I can supply any more info let me know, below is the CPU information for
> the 64-bit machine.
>
> Many thanks for your help
>
> Tom

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595



[Rd] Problem with types on 64-bit
Prof Brian Ripley