What is the detach() function in R?

Overview

The detach() function removes a database or object library/package from the search path. It can also detach objects combined by attach() like DataFrame, series, and so on.

Syntax

detach(name,
       pos = 2L,
       unload = FALSE,
       character.only = FALSE,
       force = FALSE)

Parameters

  • name: The DataFrame object to be detached. It can either be a number or a character string when character.only is set to TRUE.
  • pos: This is the position in the database or index.
  • unload: This is used to check whether namespaces can be unloaded or not.
  • character.only: This is a logical value.
    • Default = FALSE
    • Set name as a character string, when character.only is set to TRUE.
  • force: This is a logical value.
    • Default = FALSE means not removing forcefully.
    • When set to TRUE, it will forcefully remove packages even when other objects are dependent.

Example

In this code snippet, we'll use a generic function .tbl to convert a DataFrame into a table. This function belongs to the dplyr library and can be attached to detached by using attach() or detach() functions.

# R program to illustrate detach function
# Using dplyr package
library(dplyr, warn.conflicts = FALSE) # attach dplyr						
# Creating a DataFrame
df= data.frame(x=c(2,3,4,5,7,4),
              y=c(1.1,2.1,4.5,45.1,3.2,66),
              z=c(TRUE,FALSE,TRUE,TRUE,FALSE,FALSE))
# Apply as.tbl function of dplyr package
df_tbl <- as.tbl(df)
print(df_tbl)
# Detaching dplyr package
detach("package:dplyr", unload = FALSE)
# Creating another DataFrame
df= data.frame(x=c(2,3,4,5,7,4),
              y=c(TRUE,FALSE,TRUE,TRUE,FALSE,FALSE))
# Apply as.tbl after detaching dplyr package
data_tbl <- as.tbl(df)
Note: It will show a as.tbl(df) : could not find function "as.tbl" error.

Explanation

  • Line 3: We include the dplyr package in the program.
  • Lines 5–7: We create a DataFrame of six rowsObservations and three columnsFeatures.
  • Lines 9–10: We use as.tbl() from the dplyr package to convert DataFrame into a table. We print it to the console.
  • Line 12: We call the detach() function to detach the dplyr package from the current program.
  • Lines 14–17: We call as.tbl() from dplyr package after detaching. Hence, it will show an error. To ensure whether the code is working correctly or not, we can simply comment the detach() and it won't give any errors.

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