Dear R-helpers, I wonder if you can give me advice about the best way to use help(). (1) If I type ?normal because I forgot the name dnorm() I get a long list of relevant pages. Getting to right page is laborious. (2) If I remember dnorm() and want to be reminded of the call, I also get a list of pages. Advice? It seems to me that if the output of help() listed base functions first, it would go a long way toward improving the usefulness of this function. _____________________________ Professor Michael Kubovy University of Virginia Department of Psychology Postal Address: P.O.Box 400400, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400 Express Parcels Address: Gilmer Hall, Room 102, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 Office: B011; Phone: +1-434-982-4729 Lab: B019; Phone: +1-434-982-4751 WWW: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mk9y/ Skype name: polyurinsane [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
On 25/01/2009, at 2:33 PM, Michael Kubovy wrote:> Dear R-helpers, > > I wonder if you can give me advice about the best way to use help(). > > (1) If I type ?normal because I forgot the name dnorm() I get a long > list of relevant pages. Getting to right page is laborious. > > (2) If I remember dnorm() and want to be reminded of the call, I also > get a list of pages. > > Advice? > > It seems to me that if the output of help() listed base functions > first, it would go a long way toward improving the usefulness of this > function.I get the impression that you are confusing ``??'' and ``?''. If you type ``?normal'' you get a ``No documentation found'' message. If you type ``??normal'' you indeed get a long list of pages, some of which might be relevant. (If you want help on ``dnorm'' then the relevant page is stats::Normal. And then typing ``?Normal'' gets you what you want. Which is somewhat on the obscure side of obvious, IMHO.) If you type ``?dnorm'' then you get exactly what you want immediately. Exactly? Well, there's also info on pnorm, qnorm, and rnorm, but I expect you can live with that. Note that listing base functions first won't help you at all in this instance, since dnorm is in ***stats***, not in ***base***. There is no easy answer to ``How do I find the right function when I can't remember its name?''. The ``??'' construct, RSiteSearch(), some Wiki-s that lurk about the traps, the task views on CRAN, and a few other things all help, but none of them solves the problem completely. When all else fails, post to this list and resign yourself to the fact you'll probably get a flame along with the answer to your question! cheers, Rolf Turner ###################################################################### Attention:\ This e-mail message is privileged and confid...{{dropped:9}}
Michael Kubovy wrote:> Dear R-helpers,[...]> (2) If I remember dnorm() and want to be reminded of the call, I also > get a list of pages. >It sounds to me like here you want: args(dnorm) Patrick Burns patrick at burns-stat.com +44 (0)20 8525 0696 http://www.burns-stat.com (home of "The R Inferno" and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User")> Advice? > > It seems to me that if the output of help() listed base functions > first, it would go a long way toward improving the usefulness of this > function. > _____________________________ > Professor Michael Kubovy > University of Virginia > Department of Psychology > Postal Address: > P.O.Box 400400, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400 > Express Parcels Address: > Gilmer Hall, Room 102, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 > Office: B011; Phone: +1-434-982-4729 > Lab: B019; Phone: +1-434-982-4751 > WWW: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mk9y/ > Skype name: polyurinsane > > > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > 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. > > >
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009, Patrick Burns wrote:> Michael Kubovy wrote: >> Dear R-helpers, > [...] > >> (2) If I remember dnorm() and want to be reminded of the call, I also get a >> list of pages. >> > > It sounds to me like here you want: > > args(dnorm) >or, for functions hidden in a namespace, argsAnywhere(). -thomas Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics tlumley at u.washington.edu University of Washington, Seattle