Compactly Display the Structure of an Arbitrary \R Object

Usage

str(object, ...)
str.data.frame(object, ...)
str.default(object, max.level = 0, vec.len = 4, digits.d = 3,
    give.attr = TRUE, give.length = TRUE,
    wid = .Options$width,
    nest.lev = 0,
    indent.str = paste(rep(" ", max(0, nest.lev + 1)), collapse = ".."))

ls.str(name, pattern, mode = "any", max.level = 1, give.attr = FALSE)
lsf.str(...)

Arguments

object any R object about which you want to have some information.
max.level maximal level of nesting which is applied for displaying nested structures, e.g., a list containing sub lists. Default 0: Display all nesting levels.
vec.len numeric indicating how many ``first few'' elements are displayed of each vector. The number is multiplied by different factors (from .5 to 3) depending on the kind of vector. Default 4.
digits.d number of digits for numerical components (as for print).
give.attr logical; if TRUE (default), show attributes as sub structures.
give.length logical; if TRUE (default), indicate length (as [1:...]).
wid the page width to be used. The default is the currently active options("width").
nest.lev current nesting level in the recursive calls to str.
indent.str the indentation string to use.

Description

This is a ``diagnostic'' function, and an alternative to summary. Ideally, only one line for each ``basic'' structure is displayed. It is especially well suited to compactly display the (abbreviated) contents of (possibly nested) lists. The idea is to give reasonable output for any R object. It calls args for (non-primitive) function objects.

ls.str and lsf.str are useful ``versions'' of ls, calling str on each object. They are not foolproof and should rather not be used for programming, but are provided for their usefulness.

Value

Nothing, for efficiency reasons. The obvious side effect is output to the terminal.

Author(s)

Martin Maechler maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch since 1990. Currently at Seminar für Statistik, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

See Also

summary, args.

Examples

## The following examples show some of `str' capabilities
str(1:12)
str(ls)
str(args)#- more useful than  args(args) !
data(freeny); str(freeny)
str(str)
str(.Machine, digits = 20)
str( lsfit(1:9,1:9))
str( lsfit(1:9,1:9),  max =1)
op <- options(); str(op)#- save first; otherwise internal options() is used.
need.dev <- !exists(".Device") || is.null(.Device)
if(need.dev) postscript(); str(par()); if(need.dev) graphics.off()

lsf.str()#- how do the functions look like which I am using?
ls.str(mode = "list")#- what are the structured objects I have defined?

[Package Contents]