The R Project SVN R

% File src/library/base/man/range.Rd
% Part of the R package, http://www.R-project.org
% Copyright 1995-2007 R Core Development Team
% Distributed under GPL 2 or later

\name{range}
\alias{range}
\alias{range.default}
\title{Range of Values}
\usage{
range(\dots, na.rm = FALSE)

\method{range}{default}(\dots, na.rm = FALSE, finite = FALSE)
}
\arguments{
  \item{\dots}{any \code{\link{numeric}} or character objects.}
  \item{na.rm}{logical, indicating if \code{\link{NA}}'s should be
    omitted.}
  \item{finite}{logical, indicating if all non-finite elements should
    be omitted.}
}
\description{
  \code{range} returns a vector containing the minimum and maximum of
  all the given arguments.
}
\details{
  \code{range} is a generic function: methods can be defined for it
  directly or via the \code{\link[base:groupGeneric]{Summary}} group generic.
  For this to work properly, the arguments \code{\dots} should be
  unnamed, and dispatch is on the first argument.

  If \code{na.rm} is \code{FALSE}, \code{NA}
  and \code{NaN} values in any of the arguments will cause \code{NA} values
  to be returned, otherwise \code{NA} values are ignored.

  If \code{finite} is \code{TRUE}, the minimum
  and maximum of all finite values is computed, i.e.,
  \code{finite=TRUE} \emph{includes} \code{na.rm=TRUE}.

  A special situation occurs when there is no (after omission
  of \code{NA}s) nonempty argument left, see \code{\link{min}}.% Extremes.Rd
}
\section{S4 methods}{
  This is part of the S4 \code{\link[methods:S4groupGeneric]{Summary}}
  group generic.  Methods for it must use the signature
  \code{x, \dots, na.rm}.
}
\references{
  Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988)
  \emph{The New S Language}.
  Wadsworth \& Brooks/Cole.
}
\seealso{
  The \code{\link[grDevices]{extendrange}()} utility;
  \code{\link{min}}, \code{\link{max}},
  \code{\link[base]{Methods}}.
}
\examples{
(r.x <- range(stats::rnorm(100)))
diff(r.x) # the SAMPLE range

x <- c(NA, 1:3, -1:1/0); x
range(x)
range(x, na.rm = TRUE)
range(x, finite = TRUE)
}
\keyword{univar}
\keyword{arith}