name                  package:base                  R Documentation

Variable Names or Symbols, respectively

Description:

     `as.symbol' coerces its argument to be a symbol, or equivalently,
     a name.  The argument must be of mode `"character"'.  `as.name' is
     an alias for `as.symbol'.

     `is.symbol' (and `is.name' equivalently) returns `TRUE' or `FALSE'
     depending on whether its argument is a symbol (i.e. name) or not.

Usage:

     as.symbol(x)
     is.symbol(y)

     as.name(x)
     is.name(y)

Arguments:

    x, y: objects to be coerced or tested.

Note:

     The term ``symbol'' is from the lisp background of R, whereas
     ``name'' has been the standard S term for this.

See Also:

     `call', `is.language'. For the internal object mode, `typeof'.

Examples:

     an <- as.name("arrg")
     is.name(an) # TRUE
     str(an)# symbol

