[R] Why does `[<-.matrix` not exist in base R

[David Disabato]

Whenever going from working with a data.frame to a matrix, I get annoyed
that I cannot assign and subset at the same time with matrices - like I can
with data.frames.

For example, if I want to add a new column to a data.frame, I can do
something like `myDataFrame[, "newColumn"] <- NA`.

However, with a matrix, this syntax does not work and I have to use a call
to `cbind` and create a new object. For example, `mymatrix2 <-
cbind(mymatrix, "newColumn" = NA)`.

Is there a programming reason that base R does not have a matrix method for
`[<-` or is it something that arguably should be added?

-- 
David J. Disabato, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Kent State University
ddisab01 using gmail.com

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