R: Formal Method System - Dispatching S4 Methods

standardGeneric {base} | R Documentation

## Formal Method System – Dispatching S4 Methods

### Description

The function `standardGeneric` initiates dispatch of S4 methods: see the references and the documentation of the methods package. Usually, calls to this function are generated automatically and not explicitly by the programmer.

### Usage

    standardGeneric(f, fdef)

### Arguments

`f` | The name of the generic.
`fdef` | The generic function definition. Never passed when defining a new generic.

### Details

`standardGeneric` dispatches the method defined for a generic function named `f`, using the actual arguments in the frame from which it is called.

The argument `fdef` is inserted (automatically) when dispatching methods for a primitive function. If present, it must always be the function definition for the corresponding generic. Don't insert this argument by hand, as there is no validity checking and miss-specifying the function definition will cause certain failure.

For more, use the methods package, and see the documentation in `GenericFunctions`.

### Author(s)

John Chambers

### References

Chambers, John M. (2008) Software for Data Analysis: Programming with R Springer. (For the R version.)

Chambers, John M. (1998) Programming with Data Springer (For the original S4 version.)

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