attributes
All Attributes of an Object

### Description

Returns or changes all of the attributes of an object. Attributes specify the characteristics of any data object.

### Usage

    attributes(obj)
    attributes(obj) <- value
    mostattributes(obj) <- value

### Arguments

obj | any object.
value | a list object.

### Details

To explicitly delete all attributes of x, use attributes(x) <- NULL.
When you make an assignment, remember that some attributes accept only certain valid values. See attr for more information.
The mostattributes assignment is similar to attributes, with the following differences.

- The assignment does not result in an explicit error stop for the three special attributes dim, dimnames, and names if the given value is invalid. (However, the assignment is not made.)
- If the dim attribute is invalid or not given, the dimnames attribute also is not assigned.
- The names attribute can be assigned only when the dim attribute is not assigned.

For other special attributes, such as tsp, class, and others, the mostattributes assignment requires a valid value. If a valid value is not given, mostattributes fails with an error. See the examples below for more information.
Value

attributes(x) | returns a list of all the attributes of x.
attributes(x) <- value | returns value.
mostattributes(x) <- value | returns value.

Side Effects
The attributes of x, and generally the class, are changed as a result of the assignment version of this function. The attributes of x are set to the corresponding components of value and old attributes of x are deleted.
In some cases attributes are mutually exclusive; for example, assigning names (a "names" attribute) to a matrix or array currently erases "dim" and "dimnames" attributes and changes the matrix or array to a vector.
If value has length 0, all attributes are deleted.
See Also
attr, structure, length, mode, class, dim, dimnames, levels, names, tsp.
Examples

    m <- lm(y ~ x, data.frame(y=1:4, x=4:1))
    attributes(m)	# attributes of a linear model
    foo <- 1:8
    attributes(foo) <- list(dim = c(2,4)) # coerces foo to a matrix
    attributes(foo) <- NULL # removes all attributes from foo
    attributes(foo) <- list(test="empty_attr", dim= c(2,4),
    				dimnames= list(LETTERS[1:2], letters[1:4]),
    				names = paste(1:8))
    foo # with all assigned valid attributes.
    mostattributes(foo) <- list(test="empty_attr", dim= c(2,4),
    				dimnames= list(LETTERS[1:2], letters[1:4]),
    				names = paste(1:8))
    foo # with "test" , "dim" and "dimnames" but without "names" even though the names is valid
    mostattributes(foo) <- list(test="empty_attr", dim= c(2,3),
    				dimnames= list(LETTERS[1:2], letters[1:4]),
    				names = paste(1:8))
    foo # with "test" and "names" but without "dim" and "dimnames" since the given "dim" is invalid.
    mostattributes(foo) <- list(test="empty_attr", dim= c(2,3),
    				dimnames= list(LETTERS[1:2], letters[1:8]),
    				names = paste(1:10))
    foo # only with the "test" attribute. The "dim", "dimnames" and "names" are all invalid without error return.

Package base version 6.1.5-18
Package Index