names {base}

R Documentation

The Names Attribute of an Object

Description

Functions to get or set the names of an object.

Usage

names(x)
names(x) <- value

Arguments

x	an R object.
value	a character vector of the same length as x, or NULL.

Details

names is a generic accessor function, and names<- is a generic replacement function. The default methods get and set the "names" attribute of a vector or list.

It is possible to update just part of the names attribute via the general rules: see the examples. This works because the expression there is evaluated as z <- "names<-"(z, "[<-"(names(z), 3, "c2")).

Value

For names, NULL or a character vector of the same length as x.

For names<-, the updated object. (Note that the value of names(x) <- value is that of the assignment, value, not the return value from the left-hand side.)

Examples

# print the names attribute of the islands data set
names(islands)

# remove the names attribute
names(islands) <- NULL

z <- list(a=1, b="c", c=1:3)
names(z)
# change just the name of the third element.
names(z)[3] <- "c2"
z

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