Verify that an object is of class ratetable.

DESCRIPTION:

The function verifies not only the class attribute, but the structure of the object.

USAGE:

is.ratetable(x, verbose=F) 

REQUIRED ARGUMENTS:

x
the object to be verified.

OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS:

verbose
if TRUE and the object is not a ratetable, then return a character string describing the way(s) in which x fails to be a proper ratetable object.

VALUE:

returns TRUE if x is a ratetable, and FALSE or a description if it is not.

DETAILS:

Rate tables are used by the pyears and survexp functions, and normally contain death rates for some population, categorized by age, sex, or other variables. They have a fairly rigid structure, and the verbose option can help in creating a new rate table.

SEE ALSO:

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