assignOps {base}R Documentation

Assignment Operators

Description

Assign a value to a name.

Usage

x <- value
x <<- value
value -> x
value ->> x

x = value

Arguments

x a variable name (possibly quoted).
value a value to be assigned to x.

Details

There are three different assignment operators: two of them have leftwards and rightwards forms.

The operators <- and = assign into the environment in which they are evaluated. The <- can be used anywhere, but the = is only allowed at the top level (that is, in the complete expression typed by the user) or as one of the subexpressions in a braced list of expressions.

The operators <<- and ->> cause a search to made through the environment for an existing definition of the variable being assigned. If such a variable is found then its value is redefined, otherwise assignment takes place globally. Note that their semantics differ from that in the S language, but are useful in conjunction with the scoping rules of R.

In all the assignment operator expressions, x can be a name or an expression defining a part of an object to be replaced (e.g., z[[1]]). The name does not need to be quoted, though it can be.

The leftwards forms of assignment <- = <<- group right to left, the other from left to right.

Value

value. Thus one can use a <- b <- c <- 6.

References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

Chamber, J. M. (1998) Programming with Data. A Guide to the S Language. Springer (for =).

See Also

assign, environment.


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