R: Argument Matching

match.call {base} | R Documentation

## Argument Matching

### Description

`match.call` returns a call in which all of the specified arguments are specified by their full names.

### Usage

    match.call(definition = NULL, call = sys.call(sys.parent()),
               expand.dots = TRUE)

### Arguments

`definition` | a function, by default the function from which `match.call` is called. See details.
`call` | an unevaluated call to the function specified by `definition`, as generated by `call`.
`expand.dots` | logical. Should arguments matching `...` in the call be included or left as a `...` argument?

### Details

‘function’ on this help page means an interpreted function (also known as a ‘closure’): `match.call` does not support primitive functions (where argument matching is normally positional).

`match.call` is most commonly used in two circumstances:

- To record the call for later re-use: for example most model-fitting functions record the call as element `call` of the list they return. Here the default `expand.dots = TRUE` is appropriate.

- To pass most of the call to another function, often `model.frame`. Here the common idiom is that `expand.dots = FALSE` is used, and the `...` element of the matched call is removed. An alternative is to explicitly select the arguments to be passed on, as is done in `lm`.

Calling `match.call` outside a function without specifying `definition` is an error.

### Value

An object of class `call`.

### References

Chambers, J. M. (1998) Programming with Data. A Guide to the S Language. Springer.

### See Also

`sys.call()` is similar, but does not expand the argument names; `call`, `pmatch`, `match.arg`, `match.fun`.

### Examples

    match.call(get, call("get", "abc", i = FALSE, p = 3))
    ## -> get(x = "abc", pos = 3, inherits = FALSE)
    fun <- function(x, lower = 0, upper = 1) {
      structure((x - lower) / (upper - lower), CALL = match.call())
    }
    fun(4 * atan(1), u = pi)

[Package base version 2.15.1 Index]