How can I create an infix %between% operator?
You can define infix operators as functions:
`%between%`<-function(x,rng) x>rng[1] & x<rng[2]
1 %between% c(0,3)
# [1] TRUE
1 %between% c(2,3)
# [1] FALSE
As pointed out by @flodel, this operator is vectorized:
1:5 %between% c(1.5,3.5)
# [1] FALSE TRUE TRUE FALSE FALSE
To avoid ambiguity, one could define two functions:
"%><%" <- function(x, rng) x > rng[1] & x < rng[2]
"%>=<%" <- function(x, rng) x >= rng[1] & x <= rng[2]
x=1:5
x %><% c(2,4)
[1] FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE
x %>=<% c(2,4)
[1] FALSE TRUE TRUE TRUE FALSE
Or even add these two others:
"%> =<%"<-function(x,rng) x > rng[1] & x <= rng[2]
"%>= <%"<-function(x,rng) x >= rng[1] & x < rng[2]
This function exists in the package data.table
(with the slight difference that the bounds are included), implemented as:
between <- function(x,lower,upper,incbounds=TRUE)
{
if(incbounds) x>=lower & x<=upper
else x>lower & x<upper
}
"%between%" <- function(x,y) between(x,y[1],y[2],incbounds=TRUE)
It can be used as between(x,lower,upper)
or x %between% c(lower, upper)