[R] Need help

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Richard.Cotton at hsl.gov.uk wrote:

>> Can someone help me to understand the meaning of the following R line?
>>
>> list(fk5 ~ .)
> fk5 ~. is a formula, most likely used by a regression (or similar model).
> fk5 is the response variable, and the dot is a placeholder for 'whatever
> was on that side of the formula before'.  (This is usually used for
> updating models.)

That's the meaning only for update.formula() AFAIK: the far more common 
meaning is given in ?terms.formula.

> list() places the formula in a list, obviously.  It's
> hard to provide more meaning without the context.
>
> (Also, mailing list etiquette suggests you should provide a more
> informative subject line than 'need help'.)
>
> Regards,
> Richie.
>
> Mathematical Sciences Unit
> HSL

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
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