Rogerio and James, The solution is a pretty nifty one. Creating (and then deleting) an object in the global environment does, indeed, solve the problem. I hadn't been introduced to "<<-", so I was looking for a solution that would make Zelig search the local environment. Now, while I the developers side of the issue, as a user I cannot see how this could become a permanent feature of Zelig commands, especially given that other R functions do not behave this same way. The way I dealt with the issue was simply to switch to glm(), and either hand-code or use erer's maBina() for quantities of interest. cz On Jun 1, 2013, at 12:00 PM, zelig-request(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu wrote: > Send Zelig mailing list submissions to > zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.gking.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/zelig > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > zelig-request(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu > > You can reach the person managing the list at > zelig-owner(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Zelig digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: can't invoke data object inside a function (Rog?rio Barbosa) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2013 03:23:53 -0300 > From: Rog?rio Barbosa &lt;antrologos(a)gmail.com&gt; > To: "Honaker, James" &lt;jhonaker(a)iq.harvard.edu&gt;du>, > &quot;zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu&quot; &lt;zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu&gt; > Subject: Re: [zelig] can't invoke data object inside a function > Message-ID: > &lt;CAM+NV=1Z6rcbnXvDD-zy1U4EMHVRF=WvRrZqWF_edSHUdC1WTA(a)mail.gmail.com&gt; > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > By the way, I tried my old do.call solution and in fact it didn't worked. I > think the problem is that "zelig" always points to the global environment > (and there is no way to specify a customized env). Using do.call arguments > wouldn't change the fact that "lcl.data" just exists inside the function. > > It seems "setx" doesn't have this issue. > > but I'm just guessing... > Em 01/06/2013 03:13, "Rog?rio Barbosa" &lt;antrologos(a)gmail.com&gt; escreveu: > >> Hi Cesar and James, >> >> I've came up with a simple idea that worked this problem out, at least for >> Cesar's purpose -- I think... >> >> As Zelig cannot have access to objects created inside a function, one way >> to deal with it is (1) to use the function for creating the desired data >> frame in the global environment and then use; (2) then you call this object >> from Zelig; (3) finally you can delete it, if you want -- and in the end it >> is like it never existed in the globalenv. >> >> Here it is an example: >> >> ### >> >> rm(list=ls()) >> >> #require(Zelig) >> >> data(mexico) >> >> my.function <- function(the.data){ >> >> lcl.data <<- subset(the.data,select=c(1,2)) #creating a temporary >> object in the global environment >> >> zelig.reg <- zelig(lcl.data[,1]~ >> lcl.data[,2],data=lcl.data,model="ls") #running zelig using that object >> >> rm(lcl.data, envir=.GlobalEnv) #removing it... >> >> return(zelig.reg) >> >> } >> >> my.function(mexico) >> >> It worked fine for me. Is it what you wanted? >> >> Best, >> Rogerio J. Barbosa >> On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 12:25 AM, Honaker, James &lt;jhonaker(a)iq.harvard.edu&gt;wrote;wrote: >> >>> Cesar, >>> >>> This is the same issue with environment dependence as in this thread >>> earlier this month: >>> https://lists.gking.harvard.edu/pipermail/zelig/2013-May/001189.html >>> >>> In the slightly long run, the solution is that we will move from S4 to >>> Reference Classes (R5) over the summer. In the meantime, two solutions >>> were suggested in that thread. I can not get Rog?rio's do.call() solution >>> to work with the main zelig() function as I'm probably not creating the >>> argument list quite right, (the thread was about the setx() function, but >>> same underlying issue), but finding the dataset by scope does work, even if >>> unsatisfying. >>> >>> Let me know if you work out a better solution for the present. >>> >>> Best, >>> James >>> >>> -- >>> James Honaker, Senior Research Scientist >>> //// Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University >>> ------------------------------ >>> *From:* zelig-bounces(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu [ >>> zelig-bounces(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu] on behalf of Cesar Zucco [ >>> cesar.zucco(a)gmail.com] >>> *Sent:* Wednesday, May 15, 2013 3:28 PM >>> *To:* zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu >>> *Subject:* [zelig] can't invoke data object inside a function >>> >>> Hello list, >>> >>> Is there any known issue using Zelig (4.1-3) commands inside a >>> function and invoking data.frame that is only defined inside that >>> function? This worked in the previous versions of Zelig, and works with >>> non-zelig commands. Here's a barebones example: >>> >>> my.function <- function(the.data){ >>> lcl.data <- subset(the.data,select=c(dv,iv)) >>> reg <- lm(dv~ iv,data=lcl.data) #this works fine >>> zelig.reg <- zelig(dv~ iv,data=lcl.data,model="ls") #this gives error >>> } >>> >>> The lm regression works, but no zelig model seems to be able to use the >>> lcl.data. I get the same error message triggered by invoking a data.frame >>> that does not exist: >>> >>> Error in multi.dataset(lcl.data) : object 'lcl.data' not found >>> >>> cz >>> >>> Cesar Zucco Jr. >>> Assistant Professor >>> Political Science Department >>> Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey >>> http://fas-polisci.rutgers.edu/zucco/ >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> - >>> -- >>> Zelig Mailing List, served by HUIT >>> Send messages: zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu >>> [un]subscribe Options: >>> http://lists.gking.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/zelig >>> Zelig program information: http://gking.harvard.edu/zelig/ >>> Zelig mailing list >>> Zelig(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu >>> >>> To unsubscribe from this list or get other information: >>> >>> https://lists.gking.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/zelig >>> >> >> >