From Bill.Venables@cmis.CSIRO.AU  Mon Jul 19 00:54:59 1999
From: Bill.Venables@cmis.CSIRO.AU (Venables, Bill (CMIS, Cleveland))
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 09:54:59 +1000
Subject: vector()
Message-ID: <D16979FB73F3D11195510000F8030FB90528A1@roper.qld.cmis.csiro.au>

You might think about using structure()

fred <- structure(vector("list", length(happy)), names = names(happy))

and in fact you can add as many attributes as you like.  This seems a better
plan than tweaking vector() (where do you stop?) and maintains consistency
with S3 at this low level.

It must be said, though, this natural and innocent looking idiom that I once
used quite a lot in S3 code had nasty consequences in going from S3 to S4,
(as BDR frequently reminds me!)

Bill V.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Rougier [mailto:J.C.Rougier@durham.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 11:13 PM
To: r-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: vector()


Can I suggest that vector() has an additional names argument?  This would
make it more comparable with matrix() and array().  I frequently find
myself doing

	fred <- vector("list", length(happy))
	names(fred) <- names(happy)

when I would rather be doing

	fred <- vector("list", length(happy), names = names(happy))

Just a thought.  Cheers, Jonathan.

Jonathan Rougier                       Science Laboratories
Department of Mathematical Sciences    South Road
University of Durham                   Durham DH1 3LE

"[B]egin upon the precept ... that the things we see are to be 
 weighed in the scale with what we know"  (Meredith, 1879, The Egoist)

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vector()
Venables, Bill (CMIS, Cleveland