name {base}R Documentation

Variable Names or Symbols, respectively

Description

as.symbol coerces its argument to be a symbol, or equivalently, a name. The argument must be of mode "character". as.name is a .Alias for as.symbol.

is.symbol (and is.name equivalently) returns TRUE or FALSE depending on whether its argument is a symbol (i.e. name) or not.

Usage

as.symbol(x)
is.symbol(y)

as.name(x)
is.name(y)

Note

The term ``symbol'' is from the lisp background of R, whereas ``name'' has been the standard S term for this.

See Also

call, is.language. For the internal object mode, typeof.

Examples

an <- as.name("arrg")
is.name(an) # TRUE
str(an)# symbol