InternalMethods             package:base             R Documentation

Internal Generic Functions

Description:

     Many R-internal functions are _generic_ and allow methods to be
     written for.

Details:

     The following primitive and internal functions are _generic_,
     i.e., you can write 'methods' for them:

     '[', '[[', '$', '[<-', '[[<-', '$<-',

     'length', 'length<-', 'dimnames', 'dimnames<-', 'dim', 'dim<-',
     'names', 'names<-', 'levels<-',

     'c', 'unlist', 'cbind', 'rbind',

     'as.character', 'as.complex', 'as.double', 'as.integer',
     'as.logical', 'as.raw', 'as.vector', 'is.array', 'is.matrix',
     'is.na', 'is.nan', 'is.numeric', 'rep' and 'seq.int' (which
     dispatches methods for '"seq"').

     In addition, 'is.name' is a synonym for 'is.symbol' and dispatches
     methods for the latter.

     Note that all of the group generic functions are also
     internal/primitive and allow methods to be written for them.

     '.S3PrimitiveGenerics' is a character vector listing the
     primitives which are internal generic and not group generic.
     Currently 'as.vector', 'cbind', 'rbind' and 'unlist' are the
     internal non-primitive functions which are internally generic.

     For efficiency, internal dispatch only occurs on _objects_, that
     is those for which 'is.object' returns true.

See Also:

     'methods' for the methods which are available.

