Passing arguments into multiple match_fun functions in R fuzzyjoin::fuzzy_join

Question

I was answering these two questions and got an adequate solution, but I had trouble passing arguments using fuzzy_join into the match_fun that I extracted from fuzzyjoin::stringdist_join. In this case, I'm using a mix of multiple match_fun's, including this customized match_fun_stringdist and also == and <= for exact and criteria matching.

The error message I'm getting is:

# Error in mf(rep(u_x, n_y), rep(u_y, each = n_x), ...): object 'ignore_case' not found

# Data:
library(data.table, quietly = TRUE)
Address1 <- c("786, GALI NO 5, XYZ","rambo, 45, strret 4, atlast, pqr","23/4, 23RD FLOOR, STREET 2, ABC-E, PQR","45-B, GALI NO5, XYZ","HECTIC, 99 STREET, PQR")
AREACODE <- c('10','10','14','20','30')
Year1 <- c(2001:2005)

Address2 <- c("abc, pqr, xyz","786, GALI NO 4 XYZ","45B, GALI NO 5, XYZ","del, 546, strret2, towards east, pqr","23/4, STREET 2, PQR","abc, pqr, xyz","786, GALI NO 4 XYZ","45B, GALI NO 5, XYZ","del, 546, strret2, towards east, pqr","23/4, STREET 2, PQR")
Year2 <- c(2001:2010)
AREA_CODE <- c('10','10','10','20','30','40','50','61','64', '99')

data1 <- data.table(Address1, Year1, AREACODE)
data2 <- data.table(Address2, Year2, AREA_CODE)
data2[, unique_id := sprintf("%06d", 1:nrow(data2))]

# Solution:
library(fuzzyjoin, quietly = TRUE); library(dplyr, quietly = TRUE)

# First, need to define match_fun_stringdist 
# Code from stringdist_join from https://github.com/dgrtwo/fuzzyjoin/blob/master/R/stringdist_join.R
match_fun_stringdist <- function(v1, v2, ...) {

  if (ignore_case) {
    v1 <- stringr::str_to_lower(v1)
    v2 <- stringr::str_to_lower(v2)
  }

  dists <- stringdist::stringdist(v1, v2, method = method, ...)

  ret <- dplyr::data_frame(include = (dists <= max_dist))
  if (!is.null(distance_col)) {
    ret[[distance_col]] <- dists
  }
  ret
}

# Call fuzzy_join
fuzzy_join(data1, data2, 
           by = list(x = c("Address1", "AREACODE", "Year1"), y = c("Address2", "AREA_CODE", "Year2")), 
           match_fun = list(match_fun_stringdist, `==`, `<=`),
           mode = "left",
           ignore_case = FALSE,
           method = "dl",
           max_dist = 99,
           distance_col = "dist"
) %>%
  group_by(Address1, Year1, AREACODE) %>%
  top_n(1, -Address1.dist) %>%
  top_n(1, Year2) %>%
  select(unique_id, Address1.dist, everything())
#> Error in mf(rep(u_x, n_y), rep(u_y, each = n_x), ...): object 'ignore_case' not found

Zasuwa

Answer 1

I think the error is because the arguments passed into each of the multiple match_fun's mess it up i.e. can't pass extra arguments like ignore_case, originally intended for just the string_dist match_fun, into a match_fun of >=

The solution would be to define my own match_fun's with fixed parameters for arguments. See below where I define my own match_fun_stringdist with fixed parameters. I also implemented it here in another question/answer https://mcmap.net/q/375493/-r-function-for-a-function-to-be-repeated-based-on-column-values.

# First, need to define match_fun_stringdist 
# Code from stringdist_join from https://github.com/dgrtwo/fuzzyjoin
match_fun_stringdist <- function(v1, v2) {

  # Can't pass these parameters in from fuzzy_join because of multiple incompatible match_funs, so I set them here.
  ignore_case = FALSE
  method = "dl"
  max_dist = 99
  distance_col = "dist"

  if (ignore_case) {
    v1 <- stringr::str_to_lower(v1)
    v2 <- stringr::str_to_lower(v2)
  }

  # shortcut for Levenshtein-like methods: if the difference in
  # string length is greater than the maximum string distance, the
  # edit distance must be at least that large

  # length is much faster to compute than string distance
  if (method %in% c("osa", "lv", "dl")) {
    length_diff <- abs(stringr::str_length(v1) - stringr::str_length(v2))
    include <- length_diff <= max_dist

    dists <- rep(NA, length(v1))

    dists[include] <- stringdist::stringdist(v1[include], v2[include], method = method)
  } else {
    # have to compute them all
    dists <- stringdist::stringdist(v1, v2, method = method)
  }
  ret <- dplyr::data_frame(include = (dists <= max_dist))
  if (!is.null(distance_col)) {
    ret[[distance_col]] <- dists
  }
  ret
}

and call fuzzy_join

fuzzy_join(data1, data2, 
           by = list(x = c("Address1", "AREACODE", "Year1"), y = c("Address2", "AREA_CODE", "Year2")), 
           match_fun = list(match_fun_stringdist, `==`, `<=`),
           mode = "left")

Zasuwa

I get the same error. This issue is logged here: github.com/dgrtwo/fuzzyjoin/issues/50 – Hage

Turns out I got this to work just fine when I used back ticks instead of single quotes. I added additional comments to the github thread which show the code for my example. – Hage

OK, I did use backticks; however, in my case, I was trying to supply a complicated list of match_funs (match_fun = list(match_fun_stringdist, ==, <=) – Zasuwa

How did you get this to work without defining max_dist within match_fun_stringdist ? I am getting the error Error in eval_tidy(xs[[i]], unique_output) : object 'max_dist' not found even though I defined it just as you did in the fuzzy join call. – Jacquiline

Sorry, I had an outdated answer here. Now fixed. – Zasuwa

I'm trying to do something similar, I think "function factories" might be a good way to go so you don't have to write a bunch of similar custom functions. adv-r.hadley.nz/function-factories.html – Earphone