Vector-comparison {S4Vectors}R Documentation

Compare, order, tabulate vector-like objects

Description

Generic functions and methods for comparing, ordering, and tabulating vector-like objects.

Usage

## Element-wise (aka "parallel") comparison of 2 Vector objects
## ------------------------------------------------------------

pcompare(x, y)

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 == e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 == e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 == e2

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 <= e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 <= e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 <= e2

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 != e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 != e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 != e2

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 >= e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 >= e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 >= e2

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 < e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 < e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 < e2

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
e1 > e2
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
e1 > e2
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
e1 > e2

## selfmatch()
## -----------

selfmatch(x, ...)

## duplicated() & unique()
## -----------------------

## S4 method for signature 'Vector'
duplicated(x, incomparables=FALSE, ...)

## S4 method for signature 'Vector'
unique(x, incomparables=FALSE, ...)

## %in%
## ----

## S4 method for signature 'Vector,Vector'
x %in% table
## S4 method for signature 'Vector,ANY'
x %in% table
## S4 method for signature 'ANY,Vector'
x %in% table

## findMatches() & countMatches()
## ------------------------------

findMatches(x, table, select=c("all", "first", "last"), ...)
countMatches(x, table, ...)

## sort()
## ------

## S4 method for signature 'Vector'
sort(x, decreasing=FALSE, na.last=NA, by)

## table()
## -------

## S4 method for signature 'Vector'
table(...)

Arguments

x, y, e1, e2, table

Vector-like objects.

incomparables

The duplicated method for Vector objects does NOT support this argument.

The unique method for Vector objects, which is implemented on top of duplicated, propagates this argument to its call to duplicated.

See ?base::duplicated and ?base::unique for more information about this argument.

select

Only select="all" is supported at the moment. Note that you can use match if you want to do select="first". Otherwise you're welcome to request this on the Bioconductor mailing list.

decreasing, na.last

See ?base::sort.

by

A formula referencing the metadata columns by which to sort, e.g., ~ x + y sorts by column “x”, breaking ties with column “y”.

...

A Vector object for table (the table method for Vector objects can only take one input object).

Otherwise, extra arguments supported by specific methods. In particular:

  • The default selfmatch method, which is implemented on top of match, propagates the extra arguments to its call to match.

  • The duplicated method for Vector objects, which is implemented on top of selfmatch, accepts extra argument fromLast and propagates the other extra arguments to its call to selfmatch. See ?base::duplicated for more information about this argument.

  • The unique method for Vector objects, which is implemented on top of duplicated, propagates the extra arguments to its call to duplicated.

  • The default findMatches and countMatches methods, which are implemented on top of match and selfmatch, propagate the extra arguments to their calls to match and selfmatch.

  • The sort method for Vector objects, which is implemented on top of order, only accepts extra argument na.last and propagates it to its call to order.

Details

Doing pcompare(x, y) on 2 vector-like objects x and y of length 1 must return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the single element in x is considered to be respectively less than, equal to, or greater than the single element in y. If x or y have a length != 1, then they are typically expected to have the same length so pcompare(x, y) can operate element-wise, that is, in that case it returns an integer vector of the same length as x and y where the i-th element is the result of compairing x[i] and y[i]. If x and y don't have the same length and are not zero-length vectors, then the shortest is first recycled to the length of the longest. If one of them is a zero-length vector then pcompare(x, y) returns a zero-length integer vector.

selfmatch(x, ...) is equivalent to match(x, x, ...). This is actually how the default method is implemented. However note that selfmatch(x, ...) will typically be more efficient than match(x, x, ...) on vector-like objects for which a specific selfmatch method is implemented.

findMatches is an enhanced version of match which, by default (i.e. if select="all"), returns all the matches in a Hits object.

countMatches returns an integer vector of the length of x containing the number of matches in table for each element in x.

Value

For pcompare: see Details section above.

For selfmatch: an integer vector of the same length as x.

For duplicated, unique, and %in%: see ?BiocGenerics::duplicated, ?BiocGenerics::unique, and ?`%in%`.

For findMatches: a Hits object by default (i.e. if select="all").

For countMatches: an integer vector of the length of x containing the number of matches in table for each element in x.

For sort: see ?BiocGenerics::sort.

For table: a 1D array of integer values promoted to the "table" class. See ?BiocGeneric::table for more information.

Note

The following notes are for developers who want to implement comparing, ordering, and tabulating methods for their own Vector subclass:

  1. The 6 traditional binary comparison operators are: ==, !=, <=, >=, <, and >. The S4Vectors package provides the following methods for these operators: 

    setMethod("==", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { pcompare(e1, e2) == 0L }
)
setMethod("<=", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { pcompare(e1, e2) <= 0L }
)
setMethod("!=", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { !(e1 == e2) }
)
setMethod(">=", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { e2 <= e1 }
)
setMethod("<", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { !(e2 <= e1) }
)
setMethod(">", c("Vector", "Vector"),
    function(e1, e2) { !(e1 <= e2) }
)

    With these definitions, the 6 binary operators work out-of-the-box on Vector objects for which pcompare works the expected way. If pcompare is not implemented, then it's enough to implement == and <= methods to have the 4 remaining operators (!=, >=, <, and >) work out-of-the-box.

  2. The S4Vectors package provides no pcompare method for Vector objects. Specific pcompare methods need to be implemented for specific Vector subclasses (e.g. for Hits and Ranges objects). These specific methods must obey the rules described in the Details section above.

  3. The duplicated, unique, and %in% methods for Vector objects are implemented on top of selfmatch, duplicated, and match, respectively, so they work out-of-the-box on Vector objects for which selfmatch, duplicated, and match work the expected way.

  4. Also the default findMatches and countMatches methods are implemented on top of match and selfmatch so they work out-of-the-box on Vector objects for which those things work the expected way.

  5. However, since selfmatch itself is also implemented on top of match, then having match work the expected way is actually enough to get selfmatch, duplicated, unique, %in%, findMatches, and countMatches work out-of-the-box on Vector objects.

  6. The sort method for Vector objects is implemented on top of order, so it works out-of-the-box on Vector objects for which order works the expected way.

  7. The table method for Vector objects is implemented on top of selfmatch, order, and as.character, so it works out-of-the-box on a Vector object for which those things work the expected way.

  8. The S4Vectors package provides no match or order methods for Vector objects. Specific methods need to be implemented for specific Vector subclasses (e.g. for Hits and Ranges objects).

Author(s)

Hervé Pagès

See Also

Examples

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## A. SIMPLE EXAMPLES
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------

y <- c(16L, -3L, -2L, 15L, 15L, 0L, 8L, 15L, -2L)
selfmatch(y)

x <- c(unique(y), 999L)
findMatches(x, y)
countMatches(x, y)

## See ?`Ranges-comparison` for more examples (on Ranges objects). You
## might need to load the IRanges package first.

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## B. FOR DEVELOPERS: HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE BINARY COMPARISON OPERATORS
##    FOR YOUR Vector SUBCLASS
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------

## The answer is: don't implement them. Just implement pcompare() and the
## binary comparison operators will work out-of-the-box. Here is an
## example:

## (1) Implement a simple Vector subclass.

setClass("Raw", contains="Vector", representation(data="raw"))

setMethod("length", "Raw", function(x) length(x@data))

setMethod("[", "Raw",
    function(x, i, j, ..., drop) { x@data <- x@data[i]; x }
)

x <- new("Raw", data=charToRaw("AB.x0a-BAA+C"))
stopifnot(identical(length(x), 12L))
stopifnot(identical(x[7:3], new("Raw", data=charToRaw("-a0x."))))

## (2) Implement a "pcompare" method for Raw objects.

setMethod("pcompare", c("Raw", "Raw"),
    function(x, y) {as.integer(x@data) - as.integer(y@data)}
)

stopifnot(identical(which(x == x[1]), c(1L, 9L, 10L)))
stopifnot(identical(x[x < x[5]], new("Raw", data=charToRaw(".-+"))))
[Package S4Vectors version 0.16.0 Index]