[R] Non-visible functions are asterisked

[roger koenker]

short answer:  non-visible means that they are not exported from
a package with a namespace so that they are "not found" if you just
type the name.  However, you can see these functions if you use

	getAnywhere(fname)

longer answer:  see the section on namespaces in the writing R
extensions manual.


On Mar 8, 2008, at 9:48 AM, Muenchen, Robert A (Bob) wrote:

> Dear R-Helpers,
>
> I suspect I'm about to ask a FAQ, but I haven't been able to find an
> answer in the FAQ, AItR or an R Site Search. When I look at the  
> methods
> of summary (below) it says, "Non-visible functions are asterisked". I
> looked at the help file for summary.princomp, which did not comment on
> it being non-visible. I ran its help file example, which printed  
> visible
> output. I did not notice how it differed from other functions, like
> summary.data.frame that is not marked non-invisible. What does the
> non-visible mean?
>
> Thanks,
> Bob
>
>> methods(summary)
> [1] summary.aov            summary.aovlist
> [3] summary.connection     summary.data.frame
> [5] summary.Date           summary.default
> [7] summary.ecdf*          summary.factor
> [9] summary.glm            summary.infl
> [11] summary.lm             summary.loess*
> [13] summary.manova         summary.matrix
> [15] summary.mlm            summary.nls*
> [17] summary.packageStatus* summary.POSIXct
> [19] summary.POSIXlt        summary.ppr*
> [21] summary.prcomp*        summary.princomp*
> [23] summary.stepfun        summary.stl*
> [25] summary.table          summary.tukeysmooth*
>
>   Non-visible functions are asterisked
>
> =========================================================
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> Manager, Statistical Consulting Center
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