R: Drop-in replacements for help and ? functions

help {pkgload} | R Documentation

## Drop-in replacements for help and ? functions

### Description

The `?` and `help` functions are replacements for functions of the same name in the utils package. They are made available when a package is loaded with `load_all()`.

### Usage

    # help(topic, package = NULL, ...)

    # ?e2
    # e1?e2

### Arguments

`topic` | A name or character string specifying the help topic.
`package` | A name or character string specifying the package in which to search for the help topic. If NULL, search all packages.
`...` | Additional arguments to pass to `utils::help()`.
`e1` | First argument to pass along to `utils::`?“.
`e2` | Second argument to pass along to `utils::`?“.

### Details

The `?` function is a replacement for `utils::?()` from the utils package. It will search for help in devtools-loaded packages first, then in regular packages.

The `help` function is a replacement for `utils::help()` from the utils package. If `package` is not specified, it will search for help in devtools-loaded packages first, then in regular packages. If `package` is specified, then it will search for help in devtools-loaded packages or regular packages, as appropriate.

### Examples

    ## Not run:
    # This would load devtools and look at the help for load_all, if currently
    # in the devtools source directory.
    load_all()
    ?load_all
    help("load_all")

    ## End(Not run)

    # To see the help pages for utils::help and utils::`?`:
    help("help", "utils")
    help("?", "utils")

    ## Not run:
    # Examples demonstrating the multiple ways of supplying arguments
    # NB: you can't do pkg <- "ggplot2"; help("ggplot2", pkg)
    help(lm)
    help(lm, stats)
    help(lm, 'stats')
    help('lm')
    help('lm', stats)
    help('lm', 'stats')
    help(package = stats)
    help(package = 'stats')
    topic <- "lm"
    help(topic)
    help(topic, stats)
    help(topic, 'stats')

    ## End(Not run)

[Package pkgload version 1.0.1 Index]