The R Project SVN R

% File src/library/utils/man/Question.Rd

% Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org

% Copyright 1995-2025 R Core Team

% Distributed under GPL 2 or later

\name{Question}

\alias{Question}

\alias{?}

\title{Documentation Shortcuts}

\description{

  These functions provide access to documentation.

  Documentation on a topic with name \code{name} (typically, an \R

  object or a data set) can be displayed by either \code{help("name")} or

  \code{?name}.

}

% it is in fact `?`(e1, e2)

\usage{

\special{?topic}

\special{type?topic}

}

\arguments{

  \item{topic}{Usually, a \link{name} or character string specifying the

    topic for which help is sought.

    Alternatively, a function call to ask for documentation on a

    corresponding S4 method: see the section on S4 method documentation.

    The calls \code{\var{pkg}::\var{topic}} and

    \code{\var{pkg}:::\var{topic}} are treated specially, and look for

    help on \code{topic} in package \pkg{\var{pkg}}.

  }

  \item{type}{the special type of documentation to use for this topic;

    for example, type \code{package} will look for the overview help page

    of a package named \code{topic}, and if the type is \code{class},

    documentation is provided for the S4 class with name \code{topic}.

    See the Section \sQuote{S4 Method Documentation} for the uses of

    \code{type} to get help on formal methods, including

    \code{methods?\var{function}} and \code{method?\var{call}}.

  }

}

\details{

  This is a shortcut to \code{\link{help}} and uses its default type of help.

  Some topics need to be quoted (by \link{backtick}s) or given as a

  character string.  There include those which cannot syntactically

  appear on their own such as unary and binary operators,

  \code{function} and control-flow \link{reserved} words (including

  \code{if}, \code{else} \code{for}, \code{in}, \code{repeat},

  \code{while}, \code{break} and \code{next}).  The other \code{reserved}

  words can be used as if they were names, for example \code{TRUE},

  \code{NA} and \code{Inf}.

}

\section{S4 Method Documentation}{

  Authors of formal (\sQuote{S4}) methods can provide documentation

  on specific methods, as well as overall documentation on the methods

  of a particular function.  The \code{"?"} operator allows access to

  this documentation in three ways.

  The expression \code{methods?\var{f}} will look for the overall

  documentation methods for the function \code{\var{f}}.  Currently,

  this means the documentation file containing the alias

  \code{\var{f}-methods}.

  There are two different ways to look for documentation on a

  particular method.  The first is to supply the \code{topic} argument

  in the form of a function call, omitting the \code{type} argument.

  The effect is to look for documentation on the method that would be

  used if this function call were actually evaluated. See the examples

  below.  If the function is not a generic (no S4 methods are defined

  for it), the help reverts to documentation on the function name.

  The \code{"?"} operator can also be called with \code{type} supplied

  as \code{method}; in this case also, the \code{topic} argument is

  a function call, but the arguments are now interpreted as specifying

  the class of the argument, not the actual expression that will

  appear in a real call to the function.  See the examples below.

  The first approach will be tedious if the actual call involves

  complicated expressions, and may be slow if the arguments take a

  long time to evaluate.  The second approach avoids these

  issues, but you do have to know what the classes of the actual

  arguments will be when they are evaluated.

  Both approaches make use of any inherited methods; the signature of

  the method to be looked up is found by using \code{selectMethod}

  (see the documentation for \code{\link{getMethod}}).  A limitation

  is that methods in packages (as opposed to regular functions) will only 

  be found if the package exporting them is on the search list, even 

  if it is specified explicitly using the \code{?package::generic()} 

  notation.  

}

\references{

  \bibshow{R:Becker+Chambers+Wilks:1988}

}

\seealso{

  \code{\link{help}}

  \code{\link{??}} for finding help pages on a vague topic.

}

\examples{

?lapply

?"for"                  # but quotes/backticks are needed

?`+`

?women                  # information about data set "women"

package?parallel        # overview help page of package 'parallel'

\dontrun{

require(methods)

## define a S4 generic function and some methods

combo <- function(x, y) c(x, y)

setGeneric("combo")

setMethod("combo", c("numeric", "numeric"), function(x, y) x+y)

## assume we have written some documentation

## for combo, and its methods ....

?combo  # produces the function documentation

methods?combo  # looks for the overall methods documentation

method?combo("numeric", "numeric")  # documentation for the method above

?combo(1:10, rnorm(10))  # ... the same method, selected according to

                         # the arguments (one integer, the other numeric)

?combo(1:10, letters)    # documentation for the default method

}}

\keyword{documentation}