dimnames                package:base                R Documentation

Dimnames of an Object

Description:

     Retrieve or set the dimnames of an object.

Usage:

     dimnames(x)
     dimnames(x) <- nlist

Arguments:

       x: an R object, for example a matrix, array or data frame.

   nlist: a list of the length `dim(x)' whose components are either
          null or character vectors the length of the appropriate
          dimension of `x'.

Details:

     The functions `dimnames' and `dimnames<-' are generic.

     For an `array' (and hence in particular, for a `matrix'), they
     retrieve or set the `dimnames' attribute (see attributes) of the
     object. The list `nlist' can have names, and these will be used to
     label the dimensions of the array where appropriate.

     Both have methods for data frames.  The dimnames of a data frame
     are its `row.names' attribute and its `names'.

See Also:

     `rownames', `colnames'; `array', `matrix', `data.frame'.

Examples:

     ## simple versions of rownames and colnames
     ## could be defined as follows
     rownames0 <- function(x) dimnames(x)[[1]]
     colnames0 <- function(x) dimnames(x)[[2]]

