This help topic is for R version 0.64.2. For the current version of R, try https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/fixed/html/help.html
help {fixed}R Documentation

Documentation

Description

These functions provide access to documentation. Documentation on a topic with name name (typically, an R object or a data set) can be printed with either help(name) or ?name. In the case of unary and binary operators and control-flow special forms, the name may need to be quoted.

Usage

help(topic, offline = FALSE, package = c(.packages(), .Autoloaded),
     lib.loc = .lib.loc, verbose = .Options$verbose,
     htmlhelp = .Options$htmlhelp, winhelp = .Options$winhelp)
?topic

Arguments

topic

a name or character string on which documentation is sought (but not a variable containing a character string!).

offline

a logical indicating whether documentation should be displayed on-line to the screen (the default) or hardcopy of it should be produced. Ignored in this port of R.

package

a name or character vector giving the packages to look into for documentation. By default, all packages in the search path are used.

lib.loc

A character vector of directory names of R libraries. Defaults to all libraries currently known.

verbose

logical; if TRUE, the file name is reported.

htmlhelp

logical (or NULL). If TRUE, the help will not be shown on the console, but via the html browser.

winlhelp

logical (or NULL). If TRUE, a Windows .hlp file will be used if one is available.

See Also

help.start() which opens the HTML version of the R Manual; library() for listing available packages and the user-level objects they contain; data() for listing available data sets; methods().

See prompt() to get a prototype for writing help pages of private packages.

Examples

help()
help(help)		# the same

help(lapply)
?lapply			# the same

help("for")		# or ?"for", but the quotes are needed
?"+"

help(package = stepfun)	# get help even when it's not present

data()			# list all available data sets
?women			# information about data set "women"

topi <- "women"
## Not run: help(topi) ##--> Error: No documentation for `topi'