name                  package:base                  R Documentation

Names and Symbols

Description:

     'as.symbol' coerces its argument to be a _symbol_, or
     equivalently, a _name_.  The argument must be of mode
     '"character"'.  'as.name' is an 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)

Arguments:

    x, y: objects to be coerced or tested.

Details:

     'is.symbol' is generic: you can write methods to handle specific
     classes of objects, see InternalMethods.

Note:

     The term "symbol" is from the LISP background of R, whereas "name"
     has been the standard S term for this.

References:

     Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) _The New S
     Language_. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

See Also:

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

Examples:

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

