Author: Matthew Kuperus Heun
Date: 2025-05-24

# A matsindf_apply primer

#### Matthew Kuperus Heun

#### 2025-05-24

## Introduction

`matsindf_apply()` is a powerful and versatile function that enables analysis with lists and data frames by applying `FUN` in helpful ways. The function is called `matsindf_apply()`, because it can be used to apply `FUN` to a `matsindf` data frame, a data frame that contains matrices as individual entries in a data frame. (A `matsindf` data frame can be created by calling `collapse_to_matrices()`, as demonstrated below.)

But `matsindf_apply()` can apply `FUN` across much more: data frames of single numbers, lists of matrices, lists of single numbers, and individual numbers. This vignette demonstrates `matsindf_apply()`, starting with simple examples and proceeding toward sophisticated analyses.

## The basics

The basis of all analyses conducted with `matsindf_apply()` is a function (`FUN`) to be applied across data supplied in `.dat` or `...`. `FUN` must return a named list of variables as its result. Here is an example function that both adds and subtracts its arguments, `a` and `b`, and returns a list containing its result, `c` and `d`.

    example_fun <- function(a, b){
      return(list(c = matsbyname::sum_byname(a, b),
                  d = matsbyname::difference_byname(a, b)))
    }

Similar to `lapply()` and its siblings, additional argument(s) to `matsindf_apply()` include the data over which `FUN` is to be applied. These arguments can, in the first instance, be supplied as named arguments to the `...` argument of `matsindf_apply()`. All arguments in `...` must be named. The `...` arguments to `matsindf_apply()` are passed to `FUN` according to their names. In this case, the output of `matsindf_apply()` is the the named list returned by `FUN`.

    matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun, a = 2, b = 1)
    #> $c
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $d
    #> [1] 1

Passing an additional argument (`z = 2`) causes an unused argument error, because `example_fun` does not have a `z` argument.

    tryCatch(
      matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun, a = 2, b = 1, z = 2),
      error = function(e){e}
    )
    #> <simpleError in matsindf_apply_types(.dat, FUN, ...): In matsindf::matsindf_apply(), the following unused arguments appeared in ...: z>

Failing to pass a needed argument (`b`) causes an error that indicates the missing argument.

    tryCatch(
      matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun, a = 2),
      error = function(e){e}
    )
    #> Warning in matsindf_apply_types(.dat, FUN, ...): In matsindf::matsindf_apply(),
    #> the following named arguments to FUN were not found in any of .dat, ..., or
    #> defaults to FUN: b. Set .warn_missing_FUN_args = FALSE to suppress this warning
    #> if you know what you are doing.
    #> <getvarError in (function (a, b) {    return(list(c = matsbyname::sum_byname(a, b), d = matsbyname::difference_byname(a,         b)))})(a = 2): argument "b" is missing, with no default>

Alternatively, arguments to `FUN` can be given in a named list to `.dat`, the first argument of `matsindf_apply()`. When a value is assigned to `.dat`, the return value from `matsindf_apply()` contains all named variables in `.dat` (in this case both `a` and `b`) in addition to the results provided by `FUN` (in this case both `c` and `d`).

    matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1), FUN = example_fun)
    #> $a
    #> [1] 2
    #>
    #> $b
    #> [1] 1
    #>
    #> $c
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $d
    #> [1] 1

Extra variables are tolerated in `.dat`, because `.dat` is considered to be a store of data from which variables can be drawn as needed.

    matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1, z = 42), FUN = example_fun)
    #> $a
    #> [1] 2
    #>
    #> $b
    #> [1] 1
    #>
    #> $c
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $d
    #> [1] 1

In contrast, arguments to `...` are named explicitly by the user, so including an extra argument in `...` is considered an error, as shown above.

## Some details

If a named argument is supplied by both `.dat` and `...`, the argument in `...` takes precedence, overriding the argument in `.dat`.

    matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1), FUN = example_fun, a = 10)
    #> $a
    #> [1] 10
    #>
    #> $b
    #> [1] 1
    #>
    #> $c
    #> [1] 11
    #>
    #> $d
    #> [1] 9

When supplying both `.dat` and `...`, `...` can contain named strings of length `1` which are interpreted as mappings from named items in `.dat` to arguments in the signature of `FUN`. In the example below, `a = "z"` indicates that argument `a` to `FUN` should be supplied by item `z` in `.dat`.

    matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1, z = 42),
                   FUN = example_fun, a = "z")
    #> $a
    #> [1] 2
    #>
    #> $b
    #> [1] 1
    #>
    #> $z
    #> [1] 42
    #>
    #> $c
    #> [1] 43
    #>
    #> $d
    #> [1] 41

If a named argument appears in both `.dat` and the output of `FUN`, a name collision occurs in the output of `matsindf_apply()`, and a warning is issued.

    tryCatch(
      matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1, c = 42), FUN = example_fun),
      warning = function(w){w}
    )
    #> <simpleWarning in matsindf_apply(list(a = 2, b = 1, c = 42), FUN = example_fun): Name collision in matsindf::matsindf_apply(). The following arguments appear both in .dat and in the output of `FUN`: c>

`FUN` can accept more than just numerics. `example_fun_with_string()` accepts a character string and a numeric. However, because `...` argument that is a character string of length `1` has special meaning (namely mapping variables in `.dat` to arguments of `FUN`), passing a character string of length `1` can cause an error. To get around the problem, wrap the single string in a list, as shown below.

    example_fun_with_string <- function(str_a, b) {
      a <- as.numeric(str_a)
      list(added = matsbyname::sum_byname(a, b), subtracted = matsbyname::difference_byname(a, b))
    }

    # Causes an error
    tryCatch(
      matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun_with_string, str_a = "1", b = 2),
      error = function(e){e}
    )
    #> Warning in matsindf_apply_types(.dat, FUN, ...): In matsindf::matsindf_apply(),
    #> the following named arguments to FUN were not found in any of .dat, ..., or
    #> defaults to FUN: str_a. Set .warn_missing_FUN_args = FALSE to suppress this
    #> warning if you know what you are doing.
    #> <evalError in (function (str_a, b) {    a <- as.numeric(str_a)    list(added = matsbyname::sum_byname(a, b), subtracted = matsbyname::difference_byname(a,         b))})(b = 2): argument "str_a" is missing, with no default>
    # To solve the problem, wrap "1" in list().
    matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun_with_string, str_a = list("1"), b = 2)
    #> $added
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $subtracted
    #> [1] -1
    matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun_with_string, str_a = list("1"), b = list(2))
    #> $added
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $subtracted
    #> [1] -1
    matsindf_apply(FUN = example_fun_with_string,
                   str_a = list("1", "3"),
                   b = list(2, 4))
    #> $added
    #> $added[[1]]
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $added[[2]]
    #> [1] 7
    #>
    #>
    #> $subtracted
    #> $subtracted[[1]]
    #> [1] -1
    #>
    #> $subtracted[[2]]
    #> [1] -1
    matsindf_apply(.dat = list(str_a = list("1"), b = list(2)), FUN = example_fun_with_string)
    #> $str_a
    #> [1] "1"
    #>
    #> $b
    #> [1] 2
    #>
    #> $added
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $subtracted
    #> [1] -1
    matsindf_apply(.dat = list(m = list("1"), n = list(2)), FUN = example_fun_with_string,
                   str_a = "m", b = "n")
    #> $m
    #> [1] "1"
    #>
    #> $n
    #> [1] 2
    #>
    #> $added
    #> [1] 3
    #>
    #> $subtracted
    #> [1] -1

## `matsindf_apply()` and data frames

`.dat` can also contain a data frame (or tibble), both of which are fancy lists. When `.dat` is a data frame or tibble, the output of `matsindf_apply()` is a tibble, and `FUN` acts like a specialized `dplyr::mutate()`, adding new columns at the right of `.dat`.

    matsindf_apply(.dat = data.frame(str_a = c("1", "3"), b = c(2, 4)),
                   FUN = example_fun_with_string)
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>   str_a     b added subtracted
    #>   <chr> <dbl> <dbl>      <dbl>
    #> 1 1         2     3         -1
    #> 2 3         4     7         -1
    matsindf_apply(.dat = data.frame(str_a = c("1", "3"), b = c(2, 4)),
                   FUN = example_fun_with_string,
                   str_a = "str_a", b = "b")
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>   str_a     b added subtracted
    #>   <chr> <dbl> <dbl>      <dbl>
    #> 1 1         2     3         -1
    #> 2 3         4     7         -1
    matsindf_apply(.dat = data.frame(m = c("1", "3"), n = c(2, 4)),
                   FUN = example_fun_with_string,
                   str_a = "m", b = "n")
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>   m         n added subtracted
    #>   <chr> <dbl> <dbl>      <dbl>
    #> 1 1         2     3         -1
    #> 2 3         4     7         -1

Additional niceties are available when `.dat` is a data frame or a tibble. `matsindf_apply()` works when the data frame is filled with single numeric values, as is typical.

    df <- data.frame(a = 2:4, b = 1:3)
    matsindf_apply(df, FUN = example_fun)
    #> # A tibble: 3 × 4
    #>       a     b     c     d
    #>   <int> <int> <int> <int>
    #> 1     2     1     3     1
    #> 2     3     2     5     1
    #> 3     4     3     7     1

But `matsindf_apply()` also works with `matsindf` data frames, data frames in which each cell of the data frame is filled with a single matrix. To demonstrate use of `matsindf_apply()` with a `matsindf` data frame, we’ll construct a simple `matsindf` data frame (`midf`) using functions in this package.

    # Create a tidy data frame containing data for matrices
    tidy <- tibble::tibble(Year = rep(c(rep(2017, 4), rep(2018, 4)), 2),
                           matnames = c(rep("U", 8), rep("V", 8)),
                           matvals = c(1:4, 11:14, 21:24, 31:34),
                           rownames = c(rep(c(rep("p1", 2), rep("p2", 2)), 2),
                                        rep(c(rep("i1", 2), rep("i2", 2)), 2)),
                           colnames = c(rep(c("i1", "i2"), 4),
                                        rep(c("p1", "p2"), 4))) |>
      dplyr::mutate(
        rowtypes = case_when(
          matnames == "U" ~ "Product",
          matnames == "V" ~ "Industry",
          TRUE ~ NA_character_
        ),
        coltypes = case_when(
          matnames == "U" ~ "Industry",
          matnames == "V" ~ "Product",
          TRUE ~ NA_character_
        )
      )

    tidy
    #> # A tibble: 16 × 7
    #>     Year matnames matvals rownames colnames rowtypes coltypes
    #>    <dbl> <chr>      <int> <chr>    <chr>    <chr>    <chr>
    #>  1  2017 U              1 p1       i1       Product  Industry
    #>  2  2017 U              2 p1       i2       Product  Industry
    #>  3  2017 U              3 p2       i1       Product  Industry
    #>  4  2017 U              4 p2       i2       Product  Industry
    #>  5  2018 U             11 p1       i1       Product  Industry
    #>  6  2018 U             12 p1       i2       Product  Industry
    #>  7  2018 U             13 p2       i1       Product  Industry
    #>  8  2018 U             14 p2       i2       Product  Industry
    #>  9  2017 V             21 i1       p1       Industry Product
    #> 10  2017 V             22 i1       p2       Industry Product
    #> 11  2017 V             23 i2       p1       Industry Product
    #> 12  2017 V             24 i2       p2       Industry Product
    #> 13  2018 V             31 i1       p1       Industry Product
    #> 14  2018 V             32 i1       p2       Industry Product
    #> 15  2018 V             33 i2       p1       Industry Product
    #> 16  2018 V             34 i2       p2       Industry Product

    # Convert to a matsindf data frame
    midf <- tidy |>
      dplyr::group_by(Year, matnames) |>
      collapse_to_matrices(rowtypes = "rowtypes", coltypes = "coltypes") |>
      tidyr::pivot_wider(names_from = "matnames", values_from = "matvals")

    # Take a look at the midf data frame and some of the matrices it contains.
    midf
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 3
    #>    Year U             V
    #>   <dbl> <list>        <list>
    #> 1  2017 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    #> 2  2018 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    midf$U[[1]]
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1  1  2
    #> p2  3  4
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"
    midf$V[[1]]
    #>    p1 p2
    #> i1 21 22
    #> i2 23 24
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Industry"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Product"

With `midf` in hand, we can demonstrate use of `tidyverse`-style functional programming to perform matrix algebra within a data frame. The functions of the `matsbyname` package (such as `difference_byname()` below) can be used for this purpose.

    result <- midf |>
      dplyr::mutate(
        W = difference_byname(transpose_byname(V), U)
      )
    result
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>    Year U             V             W
    #>   <dbl> <list>        <list>        <list>
    #> 1  2017 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    #> 2  2018 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    result$W[[1]]
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1 20 21
    #> p2 19 20
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"
    result$W[[2]]
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1 20 21
    #> p2 19 20
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"

This way of performing matrix calculations works equally well within a 2-row `matsindf` data frame (as shown above) or within a 1000-row `matsindf` data frame.

## Programming with `matsindf_apply()`

Users can write their own functions using `matsindf_apply()`. A flexible `calc_W()` function can be written as follows.

    calc_W <- function(.DF = NULL, U = "U", V = "V", W = "W") {
      # The inner function does all the work.
      W_func <- function(U_mat, V_mat){
        # When we get here, U_mat and V_mat will be single matrices or single numbers,
        # not a column in a data frame or an item in a list.
        if (length(U_mat) == 0 & length(V_mat == 0)) {
          # Tolerate zero-length arguments by returning a zero-length
          # a list with the correct name and return type.
          return(list(numeric()) |> magrittr::setnames(W))
        }
        # Calculate W_mat from the inputs U_mat and V_mat.
        W_mat <- matsbyname::difference_byname(
          matsbyname::transpose_byname(V_mat),
          U_mat)
        # Return a named list.
        list(W_mat) |> magrittr::set_names(W)
      }
      # The body of the main function consists of a call to matsindf_apply
      # that specifies the inner function in the FUN argument.
      matsindf_apply(.DF, FUN = W_func, U_mat = U, V_mat = V)
    }

This style of writing `matsindf_apply()` functions is incredibly versatile, leveraging the capabilities of both the `matsindf` and `matsbyname` packages. (Indeed, the `Recca` package uses `matsindf_apply()` heavily and is built upon the functions in the `matsindf` and `matsbyname` packages.)

Functions written like `calc_W()` can operate in ways similar to `matsindf_apply()` itself. To demonstrate, we’ll use `calc_W()` in all the ways that `matsindf_apply()` can be used, going in the reverse order to our demonstration of the capabilities of `matsindf_apply()` above.

`calc_W()` can be used as a specialized `mutate` function that operates on `matsindf` data frames.

    midf |> calc_W()
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>    Year U             V             W
    #>   <dbl> <list>        <list>        <list>
    #> 1  2017 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    #> 2  2018 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>

The added column could be given a different name from the default (“`W`”) using the `W` argument.

    midf |> calc_W(W = "W_prime")
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>    Year U             V             W_prime
    #>   <dbl> <list>        <list>        <list>
    #> 1  2017 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    #> 2  2018 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>

As with `matsindf_apply()`, column names in `midf` can be mapped to the arguments of `calc_W()` by the arguments to `calc_W()`.

    midf |>
      dplyr::rename(X = U, Y = V) |>
      calc_W(U = "X", V = "Y")
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 4
    #>    Year X             Y             W
    #>   <dbl> <list>        <list>        <list>
    #> 1  2017 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>
    #> 2  2018 <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]> <dbl [2 × 2]>

`calc_W()` can operate on lists of single matrices, too. This approach works, because the default values for the `U` and `V` arguments to `calc_W()` are “U” and “V”, respectively. The input list members (in this case `midf$U[[1]]` and `midf$V[[1]]`) are returned with the output, because `list(U = midf$U[[1]], V = midf$V[[1]])` is passed to the `.dat` argument of `matsindf_apply()`.

    calc_W(list(U = midf$U[[1]], V = midf$V[[1]]))
    #> $U
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1  1  2
    #> p2  3  4
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"
    #>
    #> $V
    #>    p1 p2
    #> i1 21 22
    #> i2 23 24
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Industry"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #>
    #> $W
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1 20 21
    #> p2 19 20
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"

It may be clearer to name the arguments as required by the `calc_W()` function without wrapping in a list first, as shown below. But in this approach, the input matrices are not returned with the output, because arguments `U` and `V` are passed to the `...` argument of `matsindf_apply()`, not the `.dat` argument of `matsindf_apply()`.

    calc_W(U = midf$U[[1]], V = midf$V[[1]])
    #> $W
    #>    i1 i2
    #> p1 20 21
    #> p2 19 20
    #> attr(,"rowtype")
    #> [1] "Product"
    #> attr(,"coltype")
    #> [1] "Industry"

`calc_W()` can operate on data frames containing single numbers.

    data.frame(U = c(1, 2), V = c(3, 4)) |> calc_W()
    #> # A tibble: 2 × 3
    #>       U     V     W
    #>   <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
    #> 1     1     3     2
    #> 2     2     4     2

Finally, `calc_W()` can be applied to single numbers, and the result is 1x1 matrix.

    calc_W(U = 2, V = 3)
    #> $W
    #> [1] 1

It is good practice to write internal functions that tolerate zero-length inputs, as `calc_W()` does. Doing so, enables results from different calculations to be `rbind`ed together.

    calc_W(U = numeric(), V = numeric())
    #> $W
    #> numeric(0)
    calc_W(list(U = numeric(), V = numeric()))
    #> $U
    #> numeric(0)
    #>
    #> $V
    #> numeric(0)
    #>
    #> $W
    #> numeric(0)

    res <- calc_W(list(U = c(2, 3, 4, 5), V = c(3, 4, 5, 6)))
    res0 <- calc_W(list(U = numeric(), V = numeric()))
    dplyr::bind_rows(res, res0)
    #> # A tibble: 4 × 3
    #>       U     V     W
    #>   <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
    #> 1     2     3     1
    #> 2     3     4     1
    #> 3     4     5     1
    #> 4     5     6     1

## Conclusion

This vignette demonstrated use of the versatile `matsindf_apply()` function. Inputs to `matsindf_apply()` can be

- single numbers,
- matrices, or
- data frames with appropriately-named columns.

`matsindf_apply()` can be used for programming, and functions constructed as demonstrated above share characteristics with `matsindf_apply()`:

- they can be used as specialized `dplyr::mutate()` operators, and
- they can be applied to single numbers, matrices, or data frames with appropriately-named columns.