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Non-visible functions are asterisked

6 messages · Muenchen, Robert A (Bob), Duncan Murdoch, Gabor Grothendieck +2 more

Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)
# 
Dear R-Helpers,

I suspect I'm about to ask a FAQ, but I haven't been able to find an
answer in the FAQ, AItR or an R Site Search. When I look at the methods
of summary (below) it says, "Non-visible functions are asterisked". I
looked at the help file for summary.princomp, which did not comment on
it being non-visible. I ran its help file example, which printed visible
output. I did not notice how it differed from other functions, like
summary.data.frame that is not marked non-invisible. What does the
non-visible mean?

Thanks,
Bob
[1] summary.aov            summary.aovlist       
 [3] summary.connection     summary.data.frame    
 [5] summary.Date           summary.default       
 [7] summary.ecdf*          summary.factor        
 [9] summary.glm            summary.infl          
[11] summary.lm             summary.loess*        
[13] summary.manova         summary.matrix        
[15] summary.mlm            summary.nls*          
[17] summary.packageStatus* summary.POSIXct       
[19] summary.POSIXlt        summary.ppr*          
[21] summary.prcomp*        summary.princomp*     
[23] summary.stepfun        summary.stl*          
[25] summary.table          summary.tukeysmooth*  

   Non-visible functions are asterisked

=========================================================
Bob Muenchen (pronounced Min'-chen), 
Manager, Statistical Consulting Center 
U of TN Office of Information Technology
Stokely Management Center, Suite 200
916 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN 37996-0520
Voice: (865) 974-5230
FAX: (865) 974-4810
Email: muenchen at utk.edu
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News: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/statnews.html
=========================================================
Duncan Murdoch
#
On 08/03/2008 10:48 AM, Muenchen, Robert A (Bob) wrote:
Try this:
 > summary.princomp
Error: object "summary.princomp" not found
 > summary.data.frame
function (object, maxsum = 7, digits = max(3, getOption("digits") -
     3), ...)
{

  etc.

R can find summary.princomp when it runs UseMethod, but it's hidden in 
the stats namespace, so you need to use "stats:::summary.princomp" to 
see it.

Duncan Murdoch
Gabor Grothendieck
# 
It means that the package has not exported it so normally you would
not access it directly.  For example, for summary.princomp you would
normally pass a princomp object to the summary generic.

If you did want to access summary.princomp directly, since it has not been
exported, you can use the form stats:::summary.princomp as just
summary.princomp won't work.  Normally this would not be desirable, though.

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 10:48 AM, Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)
<muenchen at utk.edu> wrote:
Berwin A Turlach
# 
G'day Bob,

On Sat, 8 Mar 2008 10:48:49 -0500
"Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)" <muenchen at utk.edu> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Type at the command line

            

      
      
      
    

        
and hit return.  Note, leave out the `()'.

Now type at the command line

            

      
      
      
    

        
That should illustrate what non-visible means.

Next you might want to `?getAnywhere'.

            

      
      
      
    

        
Actually, that's not how Muenchen is pronounced. :)

HTH.

Cheers,

	Berwin

=========================== Full address =============================
Berwin A Turlach                            Tel.: +65 6516 4416 (secr)
Dept of Statistics and Applied Probability        +65 6516 6650 (self)
Faculty of Science                          FAX : +65 6872 3919       
National University of Singapore     
6 Science Drive 2, Blk S16, Level 7          e-mail: statba at nus.edu.sg
Singapore 117546                    http://www.stat.nus.edu.sg/~statba

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Roger Koenker
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
short answer:  non-visible means that they are not exported from
a package with a namespace so that they are "not found" if you just
type the name.  However, you can see these functions if you use

	getAnywhere(fname)

longer answer:  see the section on namespaces in the writing R
extensions manual.

        
On Mar 8, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Muenchen, Robert A (Bob) wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Thank you all very much!

Bob

            

      
      
      
    

        
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