| names {base} | R Documentation |
Functions to get or set the names of an object.
names(x) names(x) <- value
x |
an R object. |
value |
a character vector of up to the same length as x, or
NULL. |
names is a generic accessor function, and names<- is a
generic replacement function. The default methods get and set
the "names" attribute of a vector or list.
If value is shorter than x, it is extended by character
NAs to the length of x.
It is possible to update just part of the names attribute via the
general rules: see the examples. This works because the expression
there is evaluated as z <- "names<-"(z, "[<-"(names(z), 3, "c2")).
The name "" is special: it is used to indicate that there is no
name associated with an element of a (atomic or generic) vector.
Subscripting by "" will match nothing (not even elements which
have no name).
For names, NULL or a character vector of the same length
as x.
For names<-, the updated object. (Note that the value of
names(x) <- value is that of the assignment, value, not
the return value from the left-hand side.)
Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.
# print the names attribute of the islands data set names(islands) # remove the names attribute names(islands) <- NULL islands rm(islands) # remove the copy made z <- list(a=1, b="c", c=1:3) names(z) # change just the name of the third element. names(z)[3] <- "c2" z z <- 1:3 names(z) ## assign just one name names(z)[2] <- "b" z