Abby Spurdle (/??bi/)
on Mon, 1 Feb 2021 19:50:32 +1300 writes:
> I'm a little surprised that the following doesn't trigger an error or a warning.
> matrix (1:256, 8, 8)
> The help file says that the main argument is recycled, if it's too short.
> But doesn't say what happens if it's too long.
It's somewhat subtler than one may assume :
matrix(1:9, 2,3)
[,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,] 1 3 5
[2,] 2 4 6
Warning message:
In matrix(1:9, 2, 3) :
data length [9] is not a sub-multiple or multiple of the number of rows [2]
matrix(1:8, 2,3)
[,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,] 1 3 5
[2,] 2 4 6
Warning message:
In matrix(1:8, 2, 3) :
data length [8] is not a sub-multiple or multiple of the number of columns [3]
matrix(1:12, 2,3)
[,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,] 1 3 5
[2,] 2 4 6
So it looks to me the current behavior is quite on purpose.
Are you sure it's not documented at all when reading the docs
carefully? (I did *not*, just now).