dplyr::select() returns a wrong column, should probably throw a "no such column/value" style exception

[JohnMount]

dplyr::select() returns a wrong column, should probably throw a "no such column/value" style exception.

library("dplyr")
packageVersion("dplyr")


    ## [1] '0.7.6'


packageVersion("rlang")


    ## [1] '0.2.2'


packageVersion("tidyselect")


    ## [1] '0.2.4'


y <- "x"

dxy <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 2)
dx <- data.frame(x = 1) 

# returns column x (correct)
dx %>%
 select(y)


    ##   x
    ## 1 1


# returns column y (incorrect)
dxy %>%
 select(y)

    ##   y
    ## 1 2

[romainfrancois]

This is the documented behavior. Columns have priority in dxy %>% select(y) so the y column is selected. There is no y in dx so y is evaluated (to "x").

This is in essence, tidyselect semantics, I guess what you describe is [ standard evaluation semantics.

[ghost]

This issue was moved by romainfrancois to tidyverse/tidyselect#76.

[lock]

This old issue has been automatically locked. If you believe you have found a related problem, please file a new issue (with reprex) and link to this issue. https://reprex.tidyverse.org/