methods (version 3.3)

classRepresentation-class: Class Objects

Description

These are the objects that hold the definition of classes of objects. They are constructed and stored as meta-data by calls to the function setClass. Don't manipulate them directly, except perhaps to look at individual slots.

Arguments

Details

Class definitions are stored as metadata in various packages. Additional metadata supplies information on inheritance (the result of calls to setIs). Inheritance information implied by the class definition itself (because the class contains one or more other classes) is also constructed automatically.

When a class is to be used in an R session, this information is assembled to complete the class definition. The completion is a second object of class "classRepresentation", cached for the session or until something happens to change the information. A call to getClass returns the completed definition of a class; a call to getClassDef returns the stored definition (uncompleted).

In particular, completion fills in the upward- and downward-pointing inheritance information for the class, in slots contains and subclasses respectively. It's in principle important to note that this information can depend on which packages are installed, since these may define additional subclasses or superclasses.

See Also

See function setClass to supply the information in the class definition. See Classes for a more basic discussion of class information.