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))
> 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?
Thanks,
Doug
--
Typed from a mobile device - apologies for typos and brevity.
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