tibble preserves names attribute of added vector in column (and as.data.frame preserves as well) #837
Description
I wonder whether a tibble should preserve a vector's names attribute when added as a column or not. A data frame drops this attribute when a column is added.
?tibble might contain a hint that this is intended behaviour, but it is not clear from that ("tibble() is much lazier than base::data.frame() in terms of transforming the user's input. Character vectors are not coerced to factor. List-columns are expressly anticipated and do not require special tricks. Column names are not modified.").
See the example below about the difference in behaviour.
I would "vote" mimicing base R data frame's behaviour here.
At least when converting back to data frame via as.data.frame.tbl_df the names attribute should be pruned from columns.
library(tibble)
a <- 1:5
b <- 6:10
names(b) <- letters[1:5]
df <- data.frame(a, a * 2)
tb <- tibble(df)
df$b <- b
tb$b <- b
lapply(df, names) # data frame's columns do not have names
#> $a
#> NULL
#>
#> $a...2
#> NULL
#>
#> $b
#> NULL
lapply(tb, names) # tibble's column b preserved names
#> $a
#> NULL
#>
#> $a...2
#> NULL
#>
#> $b
#> [1] "a" "b" "c" "d" "e"
df_tb <- as.data.frame(tb)
lapply(df_tb, names) # data frame's column b has names - illegal data frame?
#> $a
#> NULL
#>
#> $a...2
#> NULL
#>
#> $b
#> [1] "a" "b" "c" "d" "e"