spray-package

Sparse arrays and multivariate polynomials

Functionality for sparse arrays, with emphasis on sparse arrays interpreted as multivariate polynomials.

Details

Base R has the capability of dealing with arbitrary dimensioned numerical arrays, with the array class.

A sparse array is a type of array in which nonzero elements are stored along with an index vector describing their coordinates---instead of arrays. This allows for efficient storage and manipulation as base arrays often require the storing of many zero elements which consume computational and memory resources.

One natural application for sparse arrays is multivariate polynomials and the package vignette presents an extended discussion.

In the package, sparse arrays are represented as objects of class spray. They use the C++ standard template library (STL) map class, with keys being (unsigned) integer vectors, and values floats.

See Also

multipol

Aliases

• spray-package

Examples

# NOT RUN {

# define a spray using a matrix of indices and a vector of values:
M <- matrix(sample(0:3,21,replace=TRUE),ncol=3)
a <- spray(M,sample(7))

# there are many pre-defined simple sprays:
b <- homog(3,4)

# arithmetic operators work:
a + 2*b
a - a*b^2/4
a+b

#  we can sum over particular dimensions:
asum(a+b,1)

# differentiation is supported:
deriv(a^6,2)

# extraction and replacement work as expected:

b[1,2,1]
b[1,2,1,drop=TRUE]

b[diag(3)] <- 3



# }