showMethods             package:methods             R Documentation

Show all the methods for the specified function(s)

Description:

     Show a summary of the methods for one or more generic functions,
     possibly restricted to those involving specified classes.

Usage:

     showMethods(f=character(), where=-1, classes=NULL, includeDefs=FALSE, 
         inherited=TRUE, printTo = stdout())

Arguments:

       f: One or more function names.  If omitted, all the functions on
          database `where' will be examined. 

   where: If `where' is supplied, the methods definition from that
          database will be used; otherwise, the current definition is
          used (which will include inherited methods that have arisen
          so far in the session).  

 classes: If argument `classes' is supplied, it is a vector of class
          names that restricts the displayed results to those methods
          whose signatures include one or more of those classes. 

includeDefs: If `includeDefs' is `TRUE', include the definitions of the
          individual methods in the printout. 

inherited: If `inherits' is `TRUE', then methods that have been found
          by inheritance, so far in the session, will be included and
          marked as inherited. 

 printTo: The connection on which the printed information will be
          written.  If `printTo' is `FALSE', the output will be
          collected as a character vector and returned as the value of
          the call to `showMethod'.   See `show'. 

Details:

     The output style is different from S-Plus in that it does not show
     the database from which the definition comes, but can optionally
     include the method definitions.

Value:

     If `printTo' is `FALSE', the character vector that would have been
     printed is returned; otherwise the value is the connection or
     filename.

Author(s):

     John Chambers

References:

     The web page <URL: http://www.omegahat.org/RSMethods/index.html>
     is the primary documentation.

     The functions in this package emulate the facility for classes and
     methods described in Programming with Data, (John M. Chambers,
     Springer, 1998).  See this book for further details and examples.

See Also:

     `setMethod', and `GenericFunctions' for other tools involving
     methods; `show' for

Examples:

     ## assuming the methods for plot
     ## are set up as in the documentation for setMethod,
     ## print (without definitions) the methods that involve
     ## class "track"
     showMethods("plot", classes = "track")

     Function "plot":
     x = ANY, y = track
     x = track, y = missing
     x = track, y = ANY

