Utility Functions for Methods and S-Plus Compatibility

Description

These are utilities, currently in the methods package, that either provide some functionality needed by the package (e.g., element matching by name), or add compatibility with S-Plus, or both.

Usage

functionBody(fun=sys.function(sys.parent()))

allNames(x)

getFunction(name, generic=TRUE, mustFind=TRUE, where)

el(object, where)

elNamed(x, name, mustFind=FALSE)

formalArgs(def)

Quote()

message(...)

showDefault(object, printTo = stdout(), oldMethods = TRUE)

Summary of Functions

allNames:

the character vector of names (unlike names(), never returns NULL).

getFunction:

find the object as a function.

elNamed:

get the element of the vector corresponding to name. Unlike the [, [[, and $ operators, this function requires name to match the element name exactly (no partial matching).

formalArgs:

Returns the names of the formal arguments of this function.

existsFunction:

Is there a function of this name? If generic is FALSE, generic functions are not counted.

findFunction:

return all the indices of the search list on which a function definition for name exists.

If generic is FALSE, ignore generic functions.

message:

Output all the arguments, pasted together with no intervening spaces.

showDefault:

Utility, used to enable show methods to be called by the automatic printing (via print.default).