Remove key<- (#6645)

Co-authored-by: Benjamin Schwendinger <[email protected]>

Author: MichaelChirico

NAMESPACE

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ importFrom(methods, "S3Part<-", slotNames)
 exportClasses(data.table, IDate, ITime)
 ##
 
-export(data.table, tables, setkey, setkeyv, key, "key<-", haskey, CJ, SJ, copy)
+export(data.table, tables, setkey, setkeyv, key, haskey, CJ, SJ, copy)
 export(rowwiseDT)
 export(setindex, setindexv, indices)
 export(as.data.table,is.data.table,test.data.table)

NEWS.md

@@ -141,6 +141,8 @@ rowwiseDT(
 
 8. `showProgress` in `[` is disabled for "trivial" grouping (`.NGRP==1L`), [#6668](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/issues/6668). Thanks @MichaelChirico for the request and @joshhwuu for the PR.
 
+9. `key<-`, marked as deprecated since 2012 and unusable since v1.15.0, has been fully removed.
+
 # data.table [v1.16.2](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/milestone/35) (9 October 2024)
 
 ## BUG FIXES

R/setkey.R

@@ -18,11 +18,6 @@ setindexv = function(x, cols, verbose=getOption("datatable.verbose")) {
   }
 }
 
-# Has been warning since 2012, with stronger warning in Mar 2019 (note in news for 1.12.2); #3399
-"key<-" = function(x,value) {
-  stopf("key(x)<-value is deprecated and not supported. Please change to use setkey() with perhaps copy(). Has been warning since 2012.")
-}
-
 setkeyv = function(x, cols, verbose=getOption("datatable.verbose"), physical=TRUE)
 {
   if (is.null(cols)) {   # this is done on a data.frame when !cedta at top of [.data.table

inst/tests/tests.Rraw

@@ -1645,11 +1645,7 @@ test(504, dtB$k, 1:4)  # or dtB
 DT = data.table(a=1:2,b=1:4,key="a")
 test(505, DT[J(a=1,b=6),sum(i.b*b),by=.EACHI]$V1, 24)  # 24 now 'double' because i.b is 'double'
 
-# Test := after a key<-
-DT = data.table(a=3:1,b=4:6)
-test(506, key(DT)<-"a", error="deprecated")
-
-# tests 508, 509, 510 related to follow-up operations after key<-, which are now irrelevant
+# tests 506, 508, 509, 510 related to follow-up operations after key<-, which are now irrelevant
 
 # Test new functions chmatch and %chin%
 y=letters

man/deprecated.Rd

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ void setselfref(SEXP x) {
     R_NilValue,                  // for identical() to return TRUE. identical() doesn't look at tag and prot
     PROTECT(getAttrib(x, R_NamesSymbol)),  // to detect if names has been replaced and its tl lost, e.g. setattr(DT,"names",...)
     PROTECT(R_MakeExternalPtr(   // to avoid an infinite loop in object.size(), if prot=x here
-      x,                         // to know if this data.table has been copied by key<-, attr<-, names<-, etc.
+      x,                         // to know if this data.table has been copied by attr<-, names<-, etc.
       R_NilValue,                // this tag and prot currently unused
       R_NilValue
     ))