tidyverse packages in R do this. Normally, you might have something like this: df = someFunctionThatReturnsADataFrame() newDf = someFunctionThatTakesAn

tidyverse packages in R do this. Normally, you might have something like this: df = someFunctionThatReturnsADataFrame() newDf = someFunctionThatTakesAndReturnsADataFrame(df) doSomethingTo(df) Since R lets you define your own operators, they took '%>%' and defined it as "pipe the return value from one function as the first argument to another function," so you can do this: someFunctionThatReturnsADataFrame() %>% someFunctionThatTakesAndReturnsADataFrame() %>% doSomethingTo() No need to name either the temporaries or the function arguments.