Question

Preamble:

R’s trace() is a powerful debugging tool, allowing users to “insert debugging code at chosen places in any function”. Unfortunately, using it from the command-line can be fairly laborious.

As an artificial example, let’s say I want to insert debugging code that will report the between-tick interval calculated by pretty.default(). I’d like to insert the code immediately after the value of delta is calculated, about four lines up from the bottom of the function definition. (Type pretty.default to see where I mean.)
To indicate that line, I need to find which step in the code it corresponds to. The answer turns out to be step list(c(12, 3, 3)), which I zero in on by running through the following steps:

as.list(body(pretty.default))
as.list(as.list(body(pretty.default))[[12]])
as.list(as.list(as.list(body(pretty.default))[[12]])[[3]])
as.list(as.list(as.list(body(pretty.default))[[12]])[[3]])[[3]]

I can then insert debugging code like this:

trace(what = 'pretty.default',
      tracer = quote(cat("\nThe value of delta is: ", delta, "\n\n")), 
      at = list(c(12,3,3)))
## Try it
a <- pretty(c(1, 7843))
b <- pretty(c(2, 23))
## Clean up
untrace('pretty.default')

Questions:

So here are my questions: Is there a way to print out a function (or a parsed version of it) with the lines nicely labeled by the steps to which they belong? (According to Venables and Ripley, S-plus has a function tprint() that “produces a numbered listing of the body of a function for use with the at argument of trace“, but R seems to have no equivalent.) Alternatively, is there another easier way, from the command line, to quickly set debugging code for a specific line within a function?

Addendum:

I used the pretty.default() example because it is reasonably tame, but with real/interesting functions, repeatedly using as.list() quickly gets tiresome and distracting. Here’s an example:

as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(as.list(body(#
model.frame.default))[[26]])[[3]])[[2]])[[4]])[[3]])[[4]])[[4]])[[4]])[[3]]

Answer 1

Here is a convenient wrapper for detecting the piece:

library(codetools)
ff <- function(f, tar) {
  cc <- function(e, w) {
    if(length(w$pos) > 0 &&
      grepl(w$tar, paste(deparse(e), collapse = "\n"), fixed = TRUE)) {
      cat(rev(w$pos), ": ", deparse(e), "\n")
      w$ret$vals <- c(w$ret$vals, list(rev(w$pos)))
    }
    w$pos <- c(0, w$pos)
    for (ee in as.list(e)){
      if (!missing(ee)) {      
        w$pos[1] <- w$pos[1] + 1
        walkCode(ee, w)
      }
    }
  }

  w <- list(pos = c(),
            tar = tar,
            ret = new.env(),
            handler = function(v, w) NULL,
            call = cc,
            leaf = function(e, w) NULL)
  walkCode(body(f), w = w)
  w$ret$vals
}

and then,

> r <- ff(pretty.default, "delta <- diff(range(z$l, z$u))/z$n")
12 :  if (!eps.correct && z$n) {     delta <- diff(range(z$l, z$u))/z$n     if (any(small <- abs(s) < 1e-14 * delta))          s[small] <- 0 } 
12 3 :  {     delta <- diff(range(z$l, z$u))/z$n     if (any(small <- abs(s) < 1e-14 * delta))          s[small] <- 0 } 
12 3 2 :  delta <- diff(range(z$l, z$u))/z$n 
> r
[[1]]
[1] 12

[[2]]
[1] 12  3

[[3]]
[1] 12  3  2

> r <- ff(model.frame.default, "stop(gettextf(\"factor '%s' has new level(s) %s\", nm, paste(nxl[m],")
26 3 2 4 3 4 4 4 3 :  stop(gettextf("factor '%s' has new level(s) %s", nm, paste(nxl[m],      collapse = ", ")), domain = NA) 
> r
[[1]]
[1] 26  3  2  4  3  4  4  4  3

and you can define the tracer by contents:

traceby <- function(fun, tar, cer) {
  untrace(deparse(substitute(fun)))
  r <- ff(fun, tar)
  r <- r[which.max(sapply(r, length))]
  trace(what = deparse(substitute(fun)), tracer = cer, at = r)
}

then,

> traceby(pretty.default, "if (any(small <- abs(s) < 1e-14 * delta)) s[small] <- 0", quote(cat("\nThe value of delta is: ", delta, "\n\n")))
Untracing function "pretty.default" in package "base"
12 3 3 :  if (any(small <- abs(s) < 1e-14 * delta)) s[small] <- 0 
Tracing function "pretty.default" in package "base"
[1] "pretty.default"
> a <- pretty(c(1, 7843))
Tracing pretty.default(c(1, 7843)) step 12,3,3 

The value of delta is:  2000 

> b <- pretty(c(2, 23))
Tracing pretty.default(c(2, 23)) step 12,3,3 

The value of delta is:  5