R: Creates a generic function in S3/UseMethod style

setGenericS3 {R.methodsS3}

R Documentation

Creates a generic function in S3/UseMethod style

Description

Note that this method is a internal method called by setMethodS3() and there is no reason for calling it directly!

Creates a generic function in S3 style, i.e. setting a function with name name that dispatches the method name via UseMethod. If there is already a function named name that function is renamed to name.default.

Usage

## Default S3 method:
setGenericS3(name, envir=parent.frame(), ellipsesOnly=TRUE, dontWarn=getOption("dontWarnPkgs"), validators=getOption("R.methodsS3:validators:setGenericS3"), ...)

Arguments

`name`	The name of the generic function.
`envir`	The environment for where this method should be stored.
`ellipsesOnly`	If `TRUE`, the only arguments in the generic function will be `...`.
`dontWarn`	If a non-generic method with the same name is found it will be "renamed" to a default method. If that method is found in a package with a name that is not found in `dontWarn` a warning will be produced, otherwise it will be renamed silently.
`validators`	An optional `list` of `function`s that can be used to assert that the generated generic function meets certain criteria.
`...`	Not used.

Author(s)

Henrik Bengtsson (http://www.braju.com/R/)

Examples

  myCat.matrix <- function(..., sep=", ") {
    cat("A matrix:\n");
    cat(..., sep=sep);
    cat("\n");
  }

  myCat.default <- function(..., sep=", ") {
    cat(..., sep=sep);
    cat("\n");
  }

  setGenericS3("myCat");

  myCat(1:10);
  mat <- matrix(1:10, ncol=5);
  attr(mat, "class") <- "matrix";  # Has to be done as of [R] V1.4.0.
  myCat(mat);