R: Does a Formal Argument have a Value?

missing {base} | R Documentation

## Does a Formal Argument have a Value?

### Description

`missing` can be used to test whether a value was specified as an argument to a function.

### Usage

    missing(x)

### Arguments

`x` | a formal argument.

### Details

`missing(x)` is only reliable if `x` has not been altered since entering the function: in particular it will always be false after `x <- match.arg(x)`.

The example shows how a plotting function can be written to work with either a pair of vectors giving x and y coordinates of points to be plotted or a single vector giving y values to be plotted against their indices.

Currently `missing` can only be used in the immediate body of the function that defines the argument, not in the body of a nested function or a `local` call. This may change in the future.

This is a ‘special’ primitive function: it must not evaluate its argument.

### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

Chambers, J. M. (1998) Programming with Data. A Guide to the S Language. Springer.

### See Also

`substitute` for argument expression; `NA` for missing values in data.

### Examples

    myplot <- function(x, y) {
                    if(missing(y)) {
                            y <- x
                            x <- 1:length(y)
                    }
                    plot(x, y)
            }

[Package base version 3.5.1 Index]