"Biczok Rudolf" <r.bic...@dkfz-heidelberg.de> writes: > Hi all; > > > Is it possible to modify the "@" operator that it can handle references > (or external pointers)
R has the notion of an external pointer, which is a pointer to C-level data. Is that what you mean? See ?"externalptr-class" and the 'Writing R Extensions' manual for details. More likely you mean that you want to pass references rather than values. An approach is to create an environment and place objects in it; environments have pass-by-reference semantics. env <- new.env(parent=emptyenv()) env$myobj <- ... Environments can be placed in slots of an S4 class, so the contents of instances of the class will not be copied. You have to pay attention when creating the S4 instance that each instance gets a new environment, e.g., defining an 'initialize' method or a class constructor. setClass("MyClass", representation=representation(env="environment")) setMethod("initialize", "MyClass", function(.Object, myData, ...) { env <- new.env(parent=emptyenv()) env$myData <- myData callNextMethod(.Object, env=env, ...) }) and then > obj <- new("MyClass", myData=1:10) > o...@env$mydata [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R users will be confused by pass-by-reference semantics. Others might point you to the R.oo or proto packages. Martin > of S4 Object instead of the real Objects? > > > Or is there any technical or compatibility issue which make it > impossible? > > > > > > I look forward to hear from you and also hope that you don't hate me for > my nooby question. > > > > > > Yours sincerely, > > > Rudolf Biczok > > > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel -- Martin Morgan Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 1100 Fairview Ave. N. PO Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109 Location: Arnold Building M2 B169 Phone: (206) 667-2793 ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel