[R-sig-ME] lmer() with 'na.action=na.exclude'; error with summary()

[John Maindonald]

The following demonstrates the issue:

> library(DAAG)
> science.lmer <- lmer(like ~ sex + PrivPub + (1 | school) + 
+                      (1 | school:class), data = science,  
+                      na.action=na.exclude) 
> summary(science.lmer)
Linear mixed model fit by REML ['lmerMod']
Formula: like ~ sex + PrivPub + (1 | school) + (1 | school:class)
   Data: science

REML criterion at convergence: 5546.5

Scaled residuals: 
Error in quantile.default(resids) : 
  missing values and NaN's not allowed if 'na.rm' is FALSE
> ## Suppress details of residuals
> summary(science.lmer, show.resids=FALSE)
Linear mixed model fit by REML ['lmerMod']
Formula: like ~ sex + PrivPub + (1 | school) + (1 | school:class)
   Data: science

REML criterion at convergence: 5546.5

Scaled residuals: 
Error in quantile.default(resids) : 
  missing values and NaN's not allowed if 'na.rm' is FALSE
> 

With na.action = na.omit, there is no problem.

> sessionInfo()
R version 3.1.1 Patched (2014-08-22 r66458)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8/C/en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] lme4_1.1-7      Rcpp_0.11.2     Matrix_1.1-4    DAAG_1.20       lattice_0.20-29

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] grid_3.1.1          latticeExtra_0.6-26 MASS_7.3-34         minqa_1.2.3         nlme_3.1-117       
[6] nloptr_1.0.4        RColorBrewer_1.0-5  splines_3.1.1       tools_3.1.1    

I doubt that there is an intention for summary.merMod() to throw an error
lmer() has been called with 'na.action=na.exclude’.  It should certainly not 
throw an error with the argument 'show.resids=FALSE’.

John Maindonald             email: john.maindonald at anu.edu.au
phone : +61 2 (6125)3473    fax  : +61 2(6125)5549
Centre for Mathematics & Its Applications, Room 1194,
John Dedman Mathematical Sciences Building (Building 27)
Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200.