Just for the record, following Bill Dunlap's advice, I think this is the best answer to the question as originally posed is.
myfun <- function(vec, i=stop("'i' must be supplied")){ vec[i] } > myfun(1:40,10) [1] 10 > myfun(1:10) Error in myfun(1:10) : 'i' must be supplied > -- Paul E. Johnson Professor, Political Science 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504 University of Kansas ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list 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.