In addition to what has already been suggested, you can use debug (and subsequently undebug) to browse a function step by step to see what each step of the function is doing.
For your specific query about match.call(), I suspect that your 'puzzlement' is that you don't know what a function call is exactly. The references you were given or even an internet search would help with that.Perhaps this also might be useful: f <- function(x,yikes,wt=3,...) match.call() z <- f(y = 0, x = 2, more = 'a') z str(z) as.list(z) Cheers, Bert On Thu, Mar 16, 2023 at 5:16 AM Sorkin, John <jsor...@som.umaryland.edu> wrote: > I am trying to understand how to write an "advanced" function. To do so, I > am examining the lm fucnction, a portion of which is pasted below. I am > unable to understand what match.call or match does, and several other > parts of lm, even when I read the help page for match.call or match. > (1) can someone point me to an explanation of match.call or match that can > be understood by the uninitiated? > (2) can someone point me to a document that will help me learn how to > write an "advanced" function? > > Thank you, > John > > > lm > function (formula, data, subset, weights, na.action, method = "qr", > model = TRUE, x = FALSE, y = FALSE, qr = TRUE, singular.ok = TRUE, > contrasts = NULL, offset, ...) > { > ret.x <- x > ret.y <- y > cl <- match.call() > mf <- match.call(expand.dots = FALSE) > m <- match(c("formula", "data", "subset", "weights", "na.action", > "offset"), names(mf), 0L) > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.