`tidyr::crossing()` with a list of tibbles unexpectedly reduces rows

Below is a reprex of my confusion. I expect when I cross a 1-row tibble with a 2-row tibble, I get a 2-row tibble. This does work with atomic column types. However, if the 2-row tibble is a list of dataframes, I don’t get a 2-row table, like expected, but a 1-row table. This does not make sense to me. Can someone explain why it is what I should expect, or if there is something I’m missing.

Cross-posted as a bug on github: https://github.com/tidyverse/tidyr/issues/1487

library(tibble)
#> Warning: package 'tibble' was built under R version 4.2.2
library(tidyr)
#> Warning: package 'tidyr' was built under R version 4.2.2

#;; This makes sense, is expected:
#;; Crossing a 1-row table with a 2-row table, I get a two row table.
(df1 <- tibble(x=1))
#> # A tibble: 1 × 1
#>       x
#>   <dbl>
#> 1     1
(df2 <- tibble(y=1:2))
#> # A tibble: 2 × 1
#>       y
#>   <int>
#> 1     1
#> 2     2
crossing(df1, df2)
#> # A tibble: 2 × 2
#>       x     y
#>   <dbl> <int>
#> 1     1     1
#> 2     1     2

#;; This does not make sense.
#;; If the second 2-row table is a list of dataframes, I still expect a 2-row
#;; table, but I get a 1-row table.
(df3 <- tibble(y=list(tibble(y=2), tibble(y=2))))
#> # A tibble: 2 × 1
#>   y               
#>   <list>          
#> 1 <tibble [1 × 1]>
#> 2 <tibble [1 × 1]>
crossing(df1, df3)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 2
#>       x y               
#>   <dbl> <list>          
#> 1     1 <tibble [1 × 1]>

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value
#>  version  R version 4.2.1 Patched (2022-07-06 r82554 ucrt)
#>  os       Windows 10 x64 (build 19044)
#>  system   x86_64, mingw32
#>  ui       RTerm
#>  language (EN)
#>  collate  English_United States.utf8
#>  ctype    English_United States.utf8
#>  tz       America/Chicago
#>  date     2023-02-26
#>  pandoc   2.19.2 @ C:/Program Files/RStudio/resources/app/bin/quarto/bin/tools/ (via rmarkdown)
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  package     * version date (UTC) lib source
#>  cli           3.6.0   2023-01-09 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  digest        0.6.31  2022-12-11 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  dplyr         1.1.0   2023-01-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  evaluate      0.20    2023-01-17 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  fansi         1.0.4   2023-01-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  fastmap       1.1.0   2021-01-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  fs            1.6.1   2023-02-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  generics      0.1.3   2022-07-05 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  glue          1.6.2   2022-02-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  htmltools     0.5.4   2022-12-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  knitr         1.42    2023-01-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  lifecycle     1.0.3   2022-10-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  magrittr      2.0.3   2022-03-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  pillar        1.8.1   2022-08-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  pkgconfig     2.0.3   2019-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  purrr         1.0.1   2023-01-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  R.cache       0.16.0  2022-07-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  R.methodsS3   1.8.2   2022-06-13 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  R.oo          1.25.0  2022-06-12 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  R.utils       2.12.2  2022-11-11 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  R6            2.5.1   2021-08-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  reprex        2.0.2   2022-08-17 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  rlang         1.0.6   2022-09-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  rmarkdown     2.20    2023-01-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  rstudioapi    0.14    2022-08-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  sessioninfo   1.2.2   2021-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  styler        1.9.0   2023-01-15 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  tibble      * 3.1.8   2022-07-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  tidyr       * 1.3.0   2023-01-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  tidyselect    1.2.0   2022-10-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  utf8          1.2.3   2023-01-31 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  vctrs         0.5.2   2023-01-23 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  withr         2.5.0   2022-03-03 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.1)
#>  xfun          0.37    2023-01-31 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#>  yaml          2.3.7   2023-01-23 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.2)
#> 
#>  [1] C:/Users/irinzn/R/R-4.2.1patched/library
#> 
#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Created on 2023-02-26 with reprex v2.0.2

>Solution :

See ?crossing

‘crossing()’ is a wrapper around ‘expand_grid()’ that
de-duplicates and sorts its inputs

Use expand_grid instead

expand_grid(df1, df3)
# A tibble: 2 × 2
      x y               
  <dbl> <list>          
1     1 <tibble [1 × 1]>
2     1 <tibble [1 × 1]>

Leave a Reply