attr_getter() generates an attribute accessor function; i.e., it
generates a function for extracting an attribute with a given
name. Unlike the base R attr() function with default options, it
doesn't use partial matching.
Examples
# attr_getter() takes an attribute name and returns a function to
# access the attribute:
get_rownames <- attr_getter("row.names")
get_rownames(mtcars)
#> [1] "Mazda RX4" "Mazda RX4 Wag" "Datsun 710"
#> [4] "Hornet 4 Drive" "Hornet Sportabout" "Valiant"
#> [7] "Duster 360" "Merc 240D" "Merc 230"
#> [10] "Merc 280" "Merc 280C" "Merc 450SE"
#> [13] "Merc 450SL" "Merc 450SLC" "Cadillac Fleetwood"
#> [16] "Lincoln Continental" "Chrysler Imperial" "Fiat 128"
#> [19] "Honda Civic" "Toyota Corolla" "Toyota Corona"
#> [22] "Dodge Challenger" "AMC Javelin" "Camaro Z28"
#> [25] "Pontiac Firebird" "Fiat X1-9" "Porsche 914-2"
#> [28] "Lotus Europa" "Ford Pantera L" "Ferrari Dino"
#> [31] "Maserati Bora" "Volvo 142E"
# These getter functions are handy in conjunction with pluck() for
# extracting deeply into a data structure. Here we'll first
# extract by position, then by attribute:
obj1 <- structure("obj", obj_attr = "foo")
obj2 <- structure("obj", obj_attr = "bar")
x <- list(obj1, obj2)
pluck(x, 1, attr_getter("obj_attr")) # From first object
#> [1] "foo"
pluck(x, 2, attr_getter("obj_attr")) # From second object
#> [1] "bar"