attributes {base}R Documentation

Object Attribute Lists

Description

These functions access an object's attribute list. The first form below returns the object's attribute list. The assignment forms make the list on the right-hand side of the assignment the object's attribute list (if appropriate).

Usage

attributes(obj)
attributes(obj) <- value
mostattributes(obj) <- value

Arguments

obj an object
value an appropriate attribute list, or NULL.

Details

Note that some attributes (namely class, comment, dim, dimnames, names and tsp) are treated specially and have restrictions on the values which can be set.

The mostattributes assignment takes special care for the dim, names and dimnames attributes, and assigns them only when that is valid whereas an attributes assignment would give an error in that case.

References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

See Also

attr.

Examples

x <- cbind(a=1:3, pi=pi) # simple matrix w/ dimnames
attributes(x)

## strip an object's attributes:
attributes(x) <- NULL
x # now just a vector of length 6

mostattributes(x) <- list(mycomment = "really special", dim = 3:2,
   dimnames = list(LETTERS[1:3], letters[1:5]), names = paste(1:6))
x # dim(), but not {dim}names

[Package base version 2.3.0 Index]