attributes               package:base               R Documentation

Object Attribute Lists

Description:

     These functions access an object's attribute list. The first form
     above returns the an 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) <- list
     mostattributes(obj) <- list

Arguments:

     obj: an object

Details:

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

See Also:

     `attr'.

Examples:

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

