[R] "--" < 0

[Adrian Dusa]

Dear R fellows,

>From time to time, just when I thought I knew my R, I get bitten by some
small things that reminds one to constantly return to the basics.

I knew for instance that "-1" < 0 is TRUE, presumably because R first
coerces to numeric before comparing with 0.

But I did not expect that "--" < 0 is a TRUE statement.
(and the same holds for any string prepended by a minus sign, e.g. "-a" < 0)

I would be grateful for an explanation, I'm sure that something very
obvious escapes me but it sure does seem counter intuitive to me.

Best wishes,
Adrian

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]