[R] sub() of matrix returns a vector and not a matrix

[Wolfram Fischer - Z/I/M]

Thanks, Andy, for this hint which is easy to implement.

I am just wundering now if there is a reason for this
loss of information about the data structure or if it is
only an inconsistant implementation of a good idea about
matrix operations:
	MATRIX * 10  results in a MATRIX
	paste( MATRIX, "." )  results in a VECTOR
	sub( "a", "A", as.character(MATRIX) )  results in a VECTOR

Wolfram Fischer

-----Original Message-----
From: Liaw, Andy [mailto:andy_liaw at merck.com]
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 3:56 PM
To: 'Wolfram Fischer - Z/I/M'
Subject: RE: [R] sub() of matrix returns a vector and not a matrix


`Matrix' in R is just a vector with `dim' attribute.  The sub()
function
(and many others) take a vector as input, and returns a vector.  It
does not
copy any attributes from the input to the output.  You can just as
easily
write a simple wrapper function that adds the dim(b) <- dim(a)
operation.

Andy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wolfram Fischer - Z/I/M [mailto:wolfram at fischer-zim.ch]
> Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 9:16 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] sub() of matrix returns a vector and not a matrix
>
>
> Is there a simple possibility
> to become directly a matrix
> from a call of sub() on a matrix?
>
>
> --------- START OF LOGFILE ----------------
> 	# R 1.4.1
>
> > a <- matrix( letters[1:6], 2, 3 )
> 	# a is a matrix
> > print( a )
>      [,1] [,2] [,3]
> [1,] "a"  "c"  "e"
> [2,] "b"  "d"  "f"
>
> > b <- sub( '(.)', '-\\1-', a )
> 	# I had expected b to be a matrix
> 	# but b is a vector
> > print( b )
> [1] "-a-" "-b-" "-c-" "-d-" "-e-" "-f-"
>
>
> > dim(b) <- dim(a)
> > print( b )
> 	# b is now a matrix again
>      [,1]  [,2]  [,3]
> [1,] "-a-" "-c-" "-e-"
> [2,] "-b-" "-d-" "-f-"
>
> --------- END OF LOGFILE ----------------
>
> Wolfram Fischer


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