Rdatatable / Rdatatable/data.table

[R-Forge #2609] Automatically [[1]] list columns?

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feature request non-atomic column
Dominant language
R
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Description

Submitted by: Matt Dowle; Assigned to: Nobody; R-Forge link

When joining a unique key only data.table with a list column of, say, models. It's sometimes frustrating to have to add col[[1]] afterwards even when data.table knows at this point that col is a single list item and of course [[1]] would be needed.
Maybe this can be automated/detected. In cases where it would always be an error to forget the [[1]].

Suggested by Mike Crowe.

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
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Research direction

Start by reviewing the R-Forge #2609 report and the data.table join behavior described here, focusing on unique-key joins that return a list column. No source file or test is named, so first establish the intended behavior and a regression test. The work is done when the [[1]] step is handled automatically only in cases where omitting it is unambiguous.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
r
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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