Hi Martin,

Thanks for the suggestions.

If possible I would avoid defining several methods with different
signatures. For the first solution,namely

setMethod("[",
          signature=signature(x="myClass"),
          function(x, i, j, ..., drop=FALSE)
      {
          if (missing(i) && missing(j))
              callNextMethod(x=x@x,,, ..., drop=drop)
          else if (missing(j))
              callNextMethod(x=x@x, i=i, , ..., drop=drop)
          else if (missing(i))
              callNextMethod(x=x@x, , j=j, ..., drop=drop)
          else
               callNextMethod(x=x@x, i=i, j=j, ..., drop=drop)
      })

one cannot distinguish between test[1] and test[1,] ! I suspect we could use
nargs()...


On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 12:43 AM, Martin Morgan <mtmorgan@fhcrc.org> wrote:

> Hi Musa --
>
> Musa Parmaksiz wrote:
> > Hi R-Help,
> >
> > Please consider the following simple case: I have a class like
> >
> > setClass("myClass",
> >                representation(x="matrix", y="character"))
> >
> > and I would like to use the method *"["* for a *myClass* objects (but
> > changing the default *drop* argument from TRUE to FALSE):
> >
> > setMethod("[","myClass",
> > function(x,i,j,...,drop=FALSE)
> > {
> >     x <- x@x
> >     callNextMethod()
>
> I think you are hoping that x@x will be subsetted, and it appears that
> it is. But I think this is a bug. 'callNextMethod' without any arguments
> should be using the 'x' in the signature. This should result in an error
> like the one seen here
>
> setMethod("[",
>           signature=signature(x="myClass"),
>            function(x, i, j, ..., drop=FALSE)
>       {
>            callNextMethod()
>       })
>
>  > test[1,]
> Error in x[i = i, j = , ...] : object is not subsettable
>
> Normally, to change the value of the variable 'seen' by the next method,
> one would expect to have to write something like
>
>
> setMethod("[",
>           signature=signature(x="myClass"),
>            function(x, i, j, ..., drop=FALSE)
>       {
>            callNextMethod(x=x@x, i=i, j=j, ..., drop=drop)
>       })
>
> You can now see how this is a little more complicated -- if j is missing
> in the original function call, then it can't be used in an assignment in
> callNextMethod. You'd have to write something like
>
> setMethod("[",
>           signature=signature(x="myClass"),
>            function(x, i, j, ..., drop=FALSE)
>       {
>            if (missing(i) && missing(j))
>               callNextMethod(x=x@x,,, ..., drop=drop)
>           else if (missing(j))
>               callNextMethod(x=x@x, i=i, , ..., drop=drop)
>           else if (missing(i))
>               callNextMethod(x=x@x, , j=j, ..., drop=drop)
>           else
>                callNextMethod(x=x@x, i=i, j=j, ..., drop=drop)
>       })
>
> or, since this is really an implementation that dispatches on the
> 'misssing'-ness of i, j, a series of methods like
>
> setMethod("[",
>           signature=signature(
>               x="myClass",
>               i="ANY',
>               j="missing")
>             function(x, i, j, ..., drop=FALSE)
>       {
>             callNextMethod(x@x, i=i, , ..., drop=drop)
>       })
>
> Notice too how it is necessary to specify the argument list in quite an
> odd way, with a ',' for the 'missing' variable(s). This is because "["
> is a so-called 'Primitive' function, and primitive functions match by
> position rather than the usual matching by name:
>
>  > matrix(1:20,5)[4,2]
> [1] 9
>  > matrix(1:20,5)[j=4,i=2]
> [1] 9
>
> !
>
> I read somewhere that when faced with learning complicated systems,
> otherwise intelligent people will develop wildly inaccurate stories to
> explain why the system 'works'. The above is my story.
>
> Martin
>
>
> >     x<-as.myClass(x)
> > }
> > )
> >
> > suppose that *as.myClass* method has been already defined. Actually, all
> I
> > want is to pass all the arguments to *"["* method for *matrix*, except
> > changing the default behaviour for *drop*.
> >
> > When I execute:
> >> test<-new("myClass",x=cbind(1:3,4:6),y="a")
> >> test[1,] # works as expected
> > [1] 1 4
> >
> >> test[1,drop=TRUE] # does not work
> > Error: argument "j" is missing, with no default
> > Error in callNextMethod() : error in evaluating a 'primitive' next
> method
> >
> > but with a matrix the two cases work:
> >> m<-cbind(1:3,4:6)
> >> m[1,]
> > [1] 1 4
> >> m[1,drop=TRUE]
> > [1] 1
> >
> > Can you please advise me a solution for this problem?
> > Thank you in advance for the help.
> >
> > Musa
> >
> >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
> --
> Martin Morgan
> Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
> 1100 Fairview Ave. N.
> PO Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109
>
> Location: Arnold Building M2 B169
> Phone: (206) 667-2793
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

