R: Is an Object Atomic or Recursive?

is.recursive {base} | R Documentation

## Is an Object Atomic or Recursive?

### Description

`is.atomic` returns `TRUE` if `x` is of an atomic type (or `NULL`) and `FALSE` otherwise.

`is.recursive` returns `TRUE` if `x` has a recursive (list-like) structure and `FALSE` otherwise.

### Usage

    is.atomic(x)
    is.recursive(x)

### Arguments

`x` | object to be tested.

### Details

`is.atomic` is true for the atomic types (`"logical"`, `"integer"`, `"numeric"`, `"complex"`, `"character"` and `"raw"`) and `NULL`.

Most types of objects are regarded as recursive. Exceptions are the atomic types, `NULL`, symbols (as given by `as.name`), `S4` objects with slots, external pointers, and—rarely visible from R—weak references and byte code, see `typeof`.

It is common to call the atomic types ‘atomic vectors’, but note that `is.vector` imposes further restrictions: an object can be atomic but not a vector (in that sense).

These are primitive functions.

### References

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

### See Also

`is.list`, `is.language`, etc, and the `demo("is.things")`.

### Examples

    require(stats)

    is.a.r <- function(x) c(is.atomic(x), is.recursive(x))

    is.a.r(c(a = 1, b = 3)) # TRUE FALSE
    is.a.r(list())          # FALSE TRUE - a list is a list
    is.a.r(list(2))         # FALSE TRUE
    is.a.r(lm)              # FALSE TRUE
    is.a.r(y ~ x)           # FALSE TRUE
    is.a.r(expression(x+1)) # FALSE TRUE
    is.a.r(quote(exp))      # FALSE FALSE

[Package base version 4.0.5 Index]