Thank you for the explanation. But if you take for instance plot.default(), being another generic function, it would not work like that: plot(1,2,3,4), only plot(1,2) is accepted.
From R-help (Usage): ## Default S3 method: mean(x, trim = 0, na.rm = FALSE, ...) What is puzzling, is that apparently na.rm (and trim, which is indicated in the help) is accepting numeric values. mean(c(1,NA,10),10,TRUE) mean(c(1,NA,10),10,FALSE) This should give at least a warning in my opinion. mean(c(1,NA,10),10,200) On 08/06/2015 09:27, Achim Zeileis wrote: > On Mon, 8 Jun 2015, Christian Brandst�tter wrote: > >> Dear list, >> >> I found an odd behavior of the mean function; it is allowed to do >> something that you probably shouldn't: >> If you calculate mean() of a sequence of numbers (without declaring >> them as vector), mean() then just computes mean() of the first >> element. Is there a reason why there is no warning, like in sd for >> example? > > mean() - unlike sd() - is a generic function that has a '...' argument > that is passed on to its methods. The default method which is called > in your example also has a '...' argument (because the generic has it) > but doesn't use it. > >> Example code: >> mean(1,2,3,4) >> sd(1,2,3,4) >> >> Best regards >> Christian >> >> ______________________________________________ >> [email protected] 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]]
______________________________________________ [email protected] 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.
