R/assignment_linter.R

Defines functions assignment_linter

Documented in assignment_linter

#' Assignment linter
#'
#' Check that the specified operator is used for assignment.
#'
#' @param operator Character vector of valid assignment operators. Defaults to allowing `<-` and `<<-`; other valid
#'   options are `=`, `->`, `->>`, `%<>%`; use `"any"` to denote "allow all operators", in which case this linter only
#'   considers `allow_trailing` for generating lints.
#' @param allow_cascading_assign,allow_right_assign,allow_pipe_assign (Defunct)
#' @param allow_trailing Logical, default `TRUE`. If `FALSE` then assignments aren't allowed at end of lines.
#'
#' @examples
#' # will produce lints
#' lint(
#'   text = "x = mean(x)",
#'   linters = assignment_linter()
#' )
#'
#' code_lines <- "1 -> x\n2 ->> y"
#' writeLines(code_lines)
#' lint(
#'   text = code_lines,
#'   linters = assignment_linter()
#' )
#'
#' lint(
#'   text = "x %<>% as.character()",
#'   linters = assignment_linter()
#' )
#'
#' lint(
#'   text = "x <- 1",
#'   linters = assignment_linter(operator = "=")
#' )
#'
#' # okay
#' lint(
#'   text = "x <- mean(x)",
#'   linters = assignment_linter()
#' )
#'
#' code_lines <- "x <- 1\ny <<- 2"
#' writeLines(code_lines)
#' lint(
#'   text = code_lines,
#'   linters = assignment_linter()
#' )
#'
#' # customizing using arguments
#' code_lines <- "1 -> x\n2 ->> y"
#' writeLines(code_lines)
#' lint(
#'   text = code_lines,
#'   linters = assignment_linter(operator = "->")
#' )
#'
#' lint(
#'   text = "x <<- 1",
#'   linters = assignment_linter(operator = "<-")
#' )
#'
#' writeLines("foo(bar = \n 1)")
#' lint(
#'   text = "foo(bar = \n 1)",
#'   linters = assignment_linter(allow_trailing = FALSE)
#' )
#'
#' lint(
#'   text = "x %<>% as.character()",
#'   linters = assignment_linter(operator = "%<>%")
#' )
#'
#' lint(
#'   text = "x = 1",
#'   linters = assignment_linter(operator = "=")
#' )
#'
#' @evalRd rd_tags("assignment_linter")
#' @seealso
#' - [linters] for a complete list of linters available in lintr.
#' - <https://style.tidyverse.org/syntax.html#assignment-1>
#' - <https://style.tidyverse.org/pipes.html#assignment-2>
#' @export
assignment_linter <- function(operator = c("<-", "<<-"),
                              allow_cascading_assign = NULL,
                              allow_right_assign = NULL,
                              allow_trailing = TRUE,
                              allow_pipe_assign = NULL) {
  if (!missing(allow_cascading_assign)) {
    lintr_deprecated(
      "allow_cascading_assign",
      '"<<-" and/or "->>" in operator',
      version = "3.2.0",
      type = "Argument",
      signal = "stop"
    )
  }
  if (!missing(allow_right_assign)) {
    lintr_deprecated(
      "allow_right_assign",
      '"->" in operator',
      version = "3.2.0",
      type = "Argument",
      signal = "stop"
    )
  }
  if (!missing(allow_pipe_assign)) {
    lintr_deprecated(
      "allow_pipe_assign",
      '"%<>%" in operator',
      version = "3.2.0",
      type = "Argument",
      signal = "stop"
    )
  }
  all_operators <- c("<-", "=", "->", "<<-", "->>", "%<>%")
  if ("any" %in% operator) {
    operator <- all_operators
  } else {
    operator <- match.arg(operator, all_operators, several.ok = TRUE)
  }
  no_cascading <- !any(c("<<-", "->>") %in% operator)
  trailing_assign_xpath <- paste0(
    collapse = " | ",
    c(
      "//LEFT_ASSIGN",
      "//RIGHT_ASSIGN",
      "//EQ_ASSIGN",
      "//EQ_SUB",
      "//EQ_FORMALS",
      "//SPECIAL[text() = '%<>%']"
    ),
    "[@line1 < following-sibling::expr[1]/@line1]"
  )

  op_xpath_parts <- c(
    if (!"=" %in% operator) "//EQ_ASSIGN",
    # -> and ->> are both 'RIGHT_ASSIGN'
    glue("//RIGHT_ASSIGN[{ xp_text_in_table(setdiff(c('->', '->>'), operator)) }]"),
    # <-, :=, and <<- are all 'LEFT_ASSIGN'; check the text if blocking <<-.
    # NB: := is not linted because of (1) its common usage in rlang/data.table and
    #   (2) it's extremely uncommon as a normal assignment operator
    glue("//LEFT_ASSIGN[{ xp_text_in_table(setdiff(c('<-', '<<-'), operator)) }]"),
    if (!"%<>%" %in% operator) "//SPECIAL[text() = '%<>%']"
  )
  if (!is.null(op_xpath_parts)) {
    implicit_assignment_xpath <- "[not(ancestor::expr[
      preceding-sibling::*[
        self::expr/SYMBOL_FUNCTION_CALL
        or self::IF
        or self::WHILE
        or self::IN
      ]
      and not(descendant-or-self::expr/*[1][self::OP-LEFT-PAREN])
    ])]"
    op_xpath <- paste0(op_xpath_parts, implicit_assignment_xpath, collapse = " | ")
  } else {
    op_xpath <- NULL
  }

  Linter(linter_level = "expression", function(source_expression) {
    xml <- source_expression$xml_parsed_content

    lints <- NULL
    if (!is.null(op_xpath)) {
      op_expr <- xml_find_all(xml, op_xpath)

      op_text <- xml_text(op_expr)
      allowed_op_list <- if (length(operator) > 1L) paste("one of", toString(operator)) else operator
      op_lint_message_fmt <- rep(
        "Use %s for assignment, not %s.",
        length(op_text)
      )
      if (no_cascading) {
        op_lint_message_fmt[op_text %in% c("<<-", "->>")] <-
          "Replace %2$s by assigning to a specific environment (with assign() or <-) to avoid hard-to-predict behavior."
      }
      op_lint_message_fmt[op_text == "%<>%"] <-
        "Avoid the assignment pipe %2$s; prefer pipes and assignment in separate steps."

      # suppress "one argument not used by format" warnings for the special cased messages that don't include
      # allowed_op_list.
      op_lint_message <- suppressWarnings(sprintf(op_lint_message_fmt, allowed_op_list, op_text))
      lints <- xml_nodes_to_lints(op_expr, source_expression, op_lint_message, type = "style")
    }

    if (!allow_trailing) {
      trailing_assign_expr <- xml_find_all(xml, trailing_assign_xpath)
      trailing_assign_text <- xml_text(trailing_assign_expr)
      trailing_assign_msg_fmt <- "Assignment %s should not be trailing at the end of a line."
      trailing_assign_msg <- sprintf(trailing_assign_msg_fmt, trailing_assign_text)
      lints <- c(lints,
        xml_nodes_to_lints(trailing_assign_expr, source_expression, trailing_assign_msg, type = "style")
      )
    }

    lints
  })
}

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lintr documentation built on Nov. 27, 2025, 9:06 a.m.