Keyed lookup on data.table without 'with'

Question

I have a data.table structure like so (except mine is really huge):

dt <- data.table(x=1:5, y=3:7, key=\'x\')

I want to loo

Answer 1

Setting a key is not required and it's faster:

dt[eval(dt[, x %in% ..x])]

   x y
1: 3 5
2: 4 6

Benchmark with the previously posted answers

microbenchmark(dt[eval(dt[, x %in% ..x])],
               dt[J(get('x', parent.frame(3)))],
               dt[eval(list(x))],
               dt[eval(J(x))],
               dt[eval(.(x))],
               merge(dt, data.table(x)),
               times = 100L)

Unit: microseconds
                                  expr    min      lq     mean  median      uq    max neval
      dt[eval(dt[, x %in% ..x])]  486.1  500.60  518.529  503.70  512.65 1238.0   100
dt[J(get("x", parent.frame(3)))]  837.3  853.25  891.424  860.00  868.30 1675.3   100
               dt[eval(list(x))]  831.8  842.70  929.521  851.95  859.85 3878.3   100
                  dt[eval(J(x))]  833.8  845.50  948.535  856.00  870.00 4599.2   100
                  dt[eval(.(x))]  828.6  846.40  871.054  851.75  859.35 1985.6   100
        merge(dt, data.table(x)) 1766.0 1804.70 1907.617 1819.95 1870.95 3123.1   100