% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/sym.R
\name{sym}
\alias{sym}
\alias{syms}
\alias{data_sym}
\alias{data_syms}
\title{Create a symbol or list of symbols}
\usage{
sym(x)

syms(x)

data_sym(x)

data_syms(x)
}
\arguments{
\item{x}{For \code{sym()} and \code{data_sym()}, a string. For \code{syms()} and
\code{data_syms()}, a list of strings.}
}
\value{
For \code{sym()} and \code{syms()}, a symbol or list of symbols. For
\code{data_sym()} and \code{data_syms()}, calls of the form \code{.data$foo}.
}
\description{
Symbols are a kind of \link[=topic-defuse]{defused expression} that
represent objects in environments.
\itemize{
\item \code{sym()} and \code{syms()} take strings as input and turn them into
symbols.
\item \code{data_sym()} and \code{data_syms()} create calls of the form
\code{.data$foo} instead of symbols. Subsetting the \code{\link{.data}} pronoun
is more robust when you expect a data-variable. See
\ifelse{html}{\link[=topic-data-mask-ambiguity]{The data mask ambiguity}}{\link[=topic-data-mask-ambiguity]{The data mask ambiguity}}.
}

Only tidy eval APIs support the \code{\link{.data}} pronoun. With base R
functions, use simple symbols created with \code{sym()} or \code{syms()}.
}
\examples{
# Create a symbol
sym("cyl")

# Create a list of symbols
syms(c("cyl", "am"))

# Symbolised names refer to variables
eval(sym("cyl"), mtcars)

# Beware of scoping issues
Cyl <- "wrong"
eval(sym("Cyl"), mtcars)

# Data symbols are explicitly scoped in the data mask
try(eval_tidy(data_sym("Cyl"), mtcars))

# These can only be used with tidy eval functions
try(eval(data_sym("Cyl"), mtcars))

# The empty string returns the missing argument:
sym("")

# This way sym() and as_string() are inverse of each other:
as_string(missing_arg())
sym(as_string(missing_arg()))

}
\seealso{
\itemize{
\item \ifelse{html}{\link[=topic-defuse]{Defusing R expressions}}{\link[=topic-defuse]{Defusing R expressions}}
\item \ifelse{html}{\link[=topic-metaprogramming]{Metaprogramming patterns}}{\link[=topic-metaprogramming]{Metaprogramming patterns}}
}
}