Save Simulation Results with Names as Hashes from the Parameters that Generated Them

Saves RDS files to a specified folder with a name that is a hash generated from a list of parameters used for the simulation. There are a number of options that control the behavior, however, the default functionality likely covers 99% of use cases.

Usage

save_objects(
  folder,
  results,
  parameters_list = NULL,
  ignore_na = TRUE,
  alphabetical_order = TRUE,
  overwrite = FALSE,
  include_timestamp = TRUE,
  hash_includes_timestamp = FALSE,
  algo = "xxhash64",
  get_script_name = TRUE,
  ignore_script_name = FALSE,
  incremental = FALSE,
  silent = FALSE
)

Arguments

folder

Character string specifying the path to the directory where the objects will be saved.

results

The R object or list of objects to be saved.

parameters_list

A named list of arguments used to generate a unique hash for the file.

ignore_na

Logical. If TRUE, NA values in parameters_list are ignored during hash generation.

alphabetical_order

Logical. If TRUE, the names in parameters_list are sorted alphabetically before hash generation.

overwrite

Logical. If TRUE, existing files with the same hash will be overwritten. If FALSE and a conflict occurs, the results will be saved under a temporary hash.

include_timestamp

Logical. If TRUE, a timestamp is added to parameters_list.

hash_includes_timestamp

Logical. If TRUE, the timestamp is included in the hash generation.

algo

Character string specifying the hashing algorithm to use. Default is "xxhash64". See ?digest

get_script_name

Logical. If TRUE, attempts to get the script name and add it to parameters_list. Only works if script is run from command line, in an interactive session, this will always be NULL.

ignore_script_name

Logical. If TRUE, the script name is ignored during hash generation.

incremental

Logical. If TRUE, results are saved in a subfolder named after the hash and can be combined with compress_incremental. Note, if TRUE, no checks will be done for results that already exist, the user should check this in their script with check_hash_existence.

silent

Logical. If TRUE, no check is done that pairs of results files (parameters and associated results) is done. This check is not necessary, but done by default to keep the user aware of a scenario that usually results from manual file manipulation.

Value

No return value. This function is called for its side effects.

Details

This function saves R objects to disk with a file name based on a generated hash of the provided arguments. It supports incremental saving, where multiple results can be saved under the same hash in a subdirectory and later collected. This can be helpful for a simulation that runs and saves results in parallel for the SAME set of simulation parameters.

See also

read_objects()

Examples

## Setup
tmp_dir <- file.path(tempdir(), "example")
dir.create(tmp_dir)

## Example using parameter list to run simulation and save results
parameters_list <- list(
  iterations = 1000,
  x_dist = "rnorm",
  x_dist_options = list(n = 10, mean = 1, sd = 2),
  error_dist = "rnorm",
  error_dist_options = list(n = 10, mean = 0, sd = 1),
  beta0 = 1,
  beta1 = 1
)

betas <- numeric(parameters_list$iterations)
for (i in 1:parameters_list$iterations) {
  x <- do.call(parameters_list$x_dist, parameters_list$x_dist_options)
  err <- do.call(parameters_list$error_dist, parameters_list$error_dist_options)
  y <- parameters_list$beta0 + parameters_list$beta1*x + err
  betas[i] <- coef(lm(y ~ x))["x"]
}

save_objects(folder = tmp_dir, results = betas, parameters_list = parameters_list)

## Read back in (consider clearing environment before running)
## Re-setup
tmp_dir <- file.path(tempdir(), "example")

parameters_list <- list(
  iterations = 1000,
  x_dist = "rnorm",
  x_dist_options = list(n = 10, mean = 1, sd = 2),
  error_dist = "rnorm",
  error_dist_options = list(n = 10, mean = 0, sd = 1),
  beta0 = 1,
  beta1 = 1
)

betas <- read_objects(folder = tmp_dir, parameters_list = parameters_list)
#> Warning: File not found for hash: 8fe7c7435185d35c

## Cleanup
unlink(tmp_dir, recursive = TRUE)