R Reference Classes - Simple Class Factory

gistfile1.r

A = setRefClass("A",
  methods=list(
    hello=identity,
    process=function(x) {-x}
  )
)
B = setRefClass("B",
  contains='A',
  methods=list(
    process=function(x) {
      y = callSuper(x)
      y = y * 2
      return(y)
    }
  )
)

data = list(
  list(x=runif(10), method="apple"),
  list(x=runif(10), method="banana"),
  list(x=runif(10), method="apple")
)

# class factory map
class_map = list("apple"=A, "banana"=B)
class_factory = function(name) {
  class_map[[name]]
}

lapply(data, function(e) {
  # get correct class
  obj = class_factory(e$method)()
  y = obj$process(e$x)
})