> On Mar 20, 2017, at 4:46 PM, Douglas Ezra Morrison <dmorriso...@ucla.edu>
> wrote:
>
> Dear R-Help readers,
>
> I am writing to ask about some behavior of base::dimnames() that surprised
> me. If I create an array with one of its dimensions = 1, and then try to
> assign names to that dimension, I get an error unless I name one of the
> other dimensions first. For example:
>
>> temp1 = array(NA, c(3,2,1))
>> dimnames(temp1)[[3]] = "test"
>
> results in the error: "Error in dimnames(temp1)[[3]] = "test" : 'dimnames'
> must be a list"
>
> However, the following works:
>
>> temp1 = array(NA, c(3,2,1))
Why not:
temp1 = array(NA, c(3,2,1))
dimnames(temp1) <- list(NULL,NULL,"test")
>> dimnames(temp1)[[2]] = c("a","b")
>> dimnames(temp1)[[3]] = "test"
>
> I found an explanation of what is happening on stackoverflow (
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12578461/r-dimnames-of-matrix-strange-behaviour/42915723),
> however, I didn't see any explanation of why this behavior is
> intended/desirable. Moreover, it recently caused a problem in a place where
> I couldn't easily work around it, without submitting edits to or forking
> someone else's R package. Is there any possibility that this behavior is a
> bug that could be fixed, or is it something I should learn to live with?
I doubt that a request for changing the behavior of the `dimnames.<-` function
will get very far. Learn to use the language as it's designed.
David.
>
> Thanks,
> Doug
>
> --
>
> Typed from a mobile device - apologies for typos and brevity.
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA
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