Report Masked S-PLUS Objects

DESCRIPTION:

Reports objects with common names on different databases.

USAGE:

masked(where=1, meta=0, reverse=F)

OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS:

where
a number or a character string specifying a database to search for masking objects. A positive number refers to the corresponding element of the search list. where=0 means database zero. A character string is interpreted as the name of a database on the current search list. Names are as returned by the search function. The default for where is the working database.
meta
if supplied, for example, as 1 or 2 (or, equivalently, "methods" or "help", respectively), check the appropriate meta-database rather than the ordinary database.
reverse
if FALSE compare specified database to databases behind it on the search list. If TRUE compare specified database to databases ahead of it on search list.

VALUE:

masked returns a character vector of object names which are common to both the specified database and some database behind it on the search list (from where + 1 to length(search())). If reverse is TRUE then do the same for the databases ahead of specified database (from 0 to where - 1. This includes currently attached directory databases and recursive S-PLUS objects. Object modes are ignored.

DETAILS:

When S-PLUS searches for an object (function or dataset), it examines the current frame, the session frame, database zero, and each of the databases on the search list, in that order. If an object of unspecified mode is being sought, the first successful name match will terminate the search. If the search is mode-specific, it ends when both criteria are satisfied. Any objects with the same name (or name and mode) on later databases are said to be masked.

A search for masked objects is useful when S-PLUS functions and datasets do not appear to behave as they should.

NOTE:

Although masked does not call any further functions, and is therefore not sensitive to masked functions itself, it may not be possible to print the answer if any function involved in printing has been masked. If this appears to be the case, try cat(masked(), "\n"), since cat does not call any functions.

SEE ALSO:

, , , , , .

EXAMPLES:

# mask the system function c
c <- function(...) cat("My c function called.\\n")   
c(1,2,3)  # will find the new c, not the system c 
masked() 
remove("c")