Congratulation Bill for this very clear and useful explanation. Heinz
At 14:58 08.04.2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >'mode' is a mutually exclusive classification of objects according to >their basic structure. The 'atomic' modes are numeric, complex, >charcter and logical. Recursive objects have modes such as 'list' or >'function' or a few others. An object has one and only one mode. > >'class' is a property assigned to an object that determines how generic >functions operate with it. It is not a mutually exclusive >classification. If an object has no specific class assigned to it, such >as a simple numeric vector, it's class is usually the same as its mode, >by convention. > >Changing the mode of an object is often called 'coercion'. The mode of >an object can change without necessarily changing the class. e.g. > > > x <- 1:16 > > mode(x) >[1] "numeric" > > dim(x) <- c(4,4) > > mode(x) >[1] "numeric" > > class(x) >[1] "matrix" > > is.numeric(x) >[1] TRUE > > mode(x) <- "character" > > mode(x) >[1] "character" > > class(x) >[1] "matrix" > >However: > > > x <- factor(x) > > class(x) >[1] "factor" > > mode(x) >[1] "numeric" > > > >At this stage, even though x has mode numeric again, its new class, >'factor', inhibits it being used in arithmetic operations. > >In practice, mode is not used very much, other than to define a class >implicitly when no explicit class has been assigned. > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >On Behalf Of Shubha Vishwanath Karanth >Sent: Tuesday, 8 April 2008 10:20 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [R] Mode Vs Class > >Hi R, > >Just came across the 'mode' of an object. What is the basic difference >between ?class and ?mode ... For example: > >d <- data.frame(a = c(1,2), b = c(5,6)) > >class(d) > >[1] "data.frame" > >mode(d) > >[1] "list" > >But, > >c <- c(2,3,5,6,7) > >class(c) > >[1] "numeric" > >mode(c) > >[1] "numeric" > >Could anyone help me out... > >Thanks, > >shubha >______________________________________________ >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. > >______________________________________________ >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. ______________________________________________ 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.
