abind                 package:abind                 R Documentation

_C_o_m_b_i_n_e _m_u_l_t_i-_d_i_m_e_n_s_i_o_n_a_l _a_r_r_a_y_s

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     Combine multi-dimensional arrays.  This is a generalization of
     cbind and rbind.  Takes a sequence of vectors, matrices, or arrays
     and produces a single array of the same or higher dimension.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     abind(..., along=N, new.names=NULL, force.array=TRUE, use.anon.names=TRUE, use.first.dimnames=FALSE)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

     ...: Vectors, arrays, or data frames.  Missing values ('NA's) are
          allowed.  The dimensions of all the arrays must match, except
          on one dimension (specified by 'along=').  If these arguments
          are named, the name will be used for the name of the
          dimension along which the arrays are joined. 

   along: (optional) The dimension along which to bind the arrays.  The
          default is the last dimension, i.e., the maximum length of
          the dim attribute of the supplied arrays.  'along=' can take
          any non-negative value up to the minimum length of the dim
          attribute of supplied arrays plus one.  When 'along=' has a
          fractional value, a value less than 1, or a value greater
          than N, a new dimension is created in the result.  In these
          cases, the dimensions of all arguments must be identical. 

new.names: (optional) If new.names is a list, it is the first choice
          for the dimnames attribute of the result.  It should have the
          same structure as a dimnames attribute.  If the names for a
          particular dimension are 'NULL', names for this dimension are
          constructed in other ways.

          If 'new.names' is a character vector, it is used for
          dimension names in the same way as argument names are used. 
          Zero length ("") names are ignored. 

force.array: (optional) If false, rbind or cbind are called when
          possible, i.e., when the arguments are all vectors, and along
          is not 1, or when the arguments are vectors or matrices or
          data frames and along is 1 or 2.  If rbind or cbind are used,
          they will preserve the data.frame classes (or any other class
          that r/cbind preserve).  Otherwise, abind will convert
          objects to class array.  Thus, to guarantee that an array
          object is returned, supply the argument 'force.array=TRUE'. 
          Note that the use of rbind or cbind introduces some subtle
          changes in the way default dimension names are constructed:
          see the examples below. 

use.anon.names: (optional) If true, the last resort for dimnames for
          the along dimension will be the deparsed versions of
          anonymous arguments.  This can result in cumbersome names
          when arguments are expressions. 

use.first.dimnames: (optional) When dimension names are present on more
          than one argument, should dimension names for the result be
          take from the first available (the default is to take them
          from the last available, which is the same behavior as
          'rbind' and 'cbind'.) 

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     The dimensions of the supplied vectors or arrays do not need to be
     identical, e.g., arguments can be a mixture of vectors and
     matrices.  'abind' coerces arguments by the addition of one
     dimension in order to make them consistent with other arguments
     and 'along='.  The extra dimension is added in the place specified
     by 'along='.

     The default action of abind is to concatenate on the last
     dimension, rather than increase the number of dimensions. For
     example, the result of calling abind with vectors is a longer
     vector (see first example below).  This differs from the action of
     'rbind' and cbind which is to return a matrix when called with
     vectors.  abind can be made to behave like cbind on vectors by
     specifying 'along=2', and like rbind by specifying 'along=0'.

     The dimnames of the returned object are pieced together from the
     dimnames of the arguments, and the names of the arguments.  Names
     for each dimension are searched for in the following order:
     new.names, argument name, dimnames (or names) attribute of last
     argument, dimnames (or names) attribute of second last argument,
     etc.  (Supplying the argument 'use.first.dimnames=TRUE' changes
     this to cause 'abind' to use dimnames or names from the first
     argument first.  The default behavior is the same as for 'rbind'
     and 'cbind': use dimnames from later arguments.)  If some names
     are supplied for the along dimension (either as argument names or
     dimnames in arguments), names are constructed for anonymous
     arguments unless 'use.anon.names=FALSE'.

_V_a_l_u_e:

     An array with a dim attribute calculated as follows.

     Let 'rMin=min(sapply(list(...), function(x) length(dim(x))))' and
     'rMax=max(sapply(list(...), function(x) length(dim(x))))' (where
     the length of the dimensions of a vector are taken to be 1).  Then
     'rMax' should be equal to or one greater than 'rMin'.

     If 'along' refers to an existing dimension, then the length of the
     dim attribute of the result is 'rMax'.  If 'along' does not refer
     to an existing dimension, then 'rMax' should equal 'rMin' and the
     length of the dim attribute of the result will be 'rMax+1'.

     'rbind' or 'cbind' are called to compute the result if (a)
     'force.array=FALSE'; and (b) the result will be a two-dimensional
     object.

_A_u_t_h_o_r(_s):

     Tony Plate tplate@attglobal.net and Richard Heiberger

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     # unlike cbind or rbind
     abind(x=1:4,y=5:8)
     # like cbind
     abind(x=1:4,y=5:8,along=2)                   
     abind(x=1:4,matrix(5:20,nrow=4),along=2)
     abind(1:4,matrix(5:20,nrow=4),along=2)
     # like rbind
     abind(x=1:4,matrix(5:20,nrow=4),along=1)
     abind(1:4,matrix(5:20,nrow=4),along=1)
     # create a 3-d array out of two matrices
     abind(x=matrix(1:16,nrow=4),y=matrix(17:32,nrow=4),along=3)

