Check if character value is a valid R object name

Question

Several months ago I asked something similar, but I was using JavaScript to check if provided string is a \"valid\" R object name. Now I\'d like to achieve the same by using

Answer 1

As Josh suggests, make.names is probably the best solution to this. Not only will it handle weird punctuation, it'll also flag reserved words:

make.names(".x")   # ".x"
make.names("_x")   # "X_x"
make.names("if")   # " if."
make.names("function")  # "function."