array selection {DelayedArray} | R Documentation

## Manipulation of array selections

### Description

NOTE: The tools documented in this man page are primarily intended for developers or advanced users curious about the internals of the DelayedArray package. End users typically don't need them for their regular use of DelayedArray objects.

An array selection is just an index into an array-like object that contains the information of which array elements are selected. This index can take various forms but 3 special forms are particularly useful and extensively used thoughout the DelayedArray framework: linear index (also referred to as L-index or Lindex), matrix index (also referred to as M-index or Mindex), N-dimensional index (also referred to as N-index or Nindex). See Details section below for more information.

Two utility functions are provided at the moment to convert back and forth between L-indices and M-indices. More will be added in the future to convert between other types of array indices.

### Usage

    ## Convert back and forth between L-indices and M-indices:
    Lindex2Mindex(Lindex, dim, use.names=FALSE)
    Mindex2Lindex(Mindex, dim, use.names=FALSE, as.integer=FALSE)

### Arguments

`Lindex` | An L-index. See Details section below.
`Mindex` | An M-index. See Details section below. For convenience, `Mindex` can also be specified as an integer vector with one element per dimension in the underlying array, in which case it will be treated like a 1-row matrix.
`dim` | An integer vector containing the dimensions of the underlying array. Note that `dim` can also be an integer matrix, in which case it must have one row per element in `Lindex` (or per row in `Mindex`) and one column per dimension in the underlying array.
`use.names` | Should the names (or rownames) on the input be propagated to the output?
`as.integer` | Set to `TRUE` to force `Mindex2Lindex` to return the L-index as an integer vector. Dangerous! By default, i.e. when `as.integer=FALSE`, `Mindex2Lindex` will return the L-index either as an integer or numeric vector. It will choose the former only if it's safe, that is, only if all the values in the L-index "fit" in the integer type. More precisely: If `dim` is not a matrix (i.e. is a vector) or if it's a matrix with a single row: `Mindex2Lindex` returns an integer or numeric vector depending on whether `prod(dim)` is <= `.Machine$integer.max` (2^31 - 1) or not. Otherwise `Mindex2Lindex` returns a numeric vector. Note that with these rules, `Mindex2Lindex` can return a numeric vector even if an integer vector could have been used. Use `as.integer=TRUE` only in situations where you know that all the L-index values are going to "fit" in the integer type. `Mindex2Lindex` will return garbage if they don't.

### Details

The 3 special forms of array indices extensively used thoughout the DelayedArray framework:

1. Linear index (or L-index or Lindex): A numeric vector with no NAs where each value is >= 1 and <= the length of the array-like object. When using an L-index to subset an array-like object, the returned value is a vector-like object (i.e. no dimensions) of the same length as the L-index.

   Example:

                   a <- array(101:124, 4:2)
                   Lindex <- c(7, 2, 24, 2)
                   a[Lindex]

2. Matrix index (or M-index or Mindex): An integer matrix with one column per dimension in the array-like object and one row per array element in the selection. No NAs. The values in each column must be >= 1 and <= the extent of the array-like object along the corresponding dimension. When using an M-index to subset an array-like object, the returned value is a vector-like object (i.e. no dimensions) of length the number of rows in the M-index.

   Example:

                   a <- array(101:124, 4:2)
                   Mindex <- rbind(c(3, 2, 1),
                                   c(2, 1, 1),
                                   c(4, 3, 2),
                                   c(2, 1, 1))
                   a[Mindex]

   Note that this is the type of index returned by `base::arrayInd`.

3. N-dimensional (or N-index or Nindex): A list with one list element per dimension in the array-like object. Each list element must be a subscript describing the selection along the corresponding dimension of the array-like object. IMPORTANT: A `NULL` subscript is interpreted as a missing subscript ("missing" like in `a[ , , 1:2]`), that is, as a subscript that runs along the full extend of the corresponding dimension of the array-like object. This means that before an N-index can be used in a call to `[`, `[<-`, `[[` or `[[<-`, the `NULL` list elements in it must be replaced with objects of class `"name"`. When using an N-index to subset an array-like object, the returned value is another array-like object of dimensions the lengths of the selections along each dimensions.

   Examples:

                   a <- array(101:124, 4:2)

                   ## Normalized N-index:

                   Nindex <- list(c(1, 4, 1), NULL, 1)
                   ## Same as a[c(1, 4, 1), , 1, drop=FALSE]:
                   DelayedArray:::subset_by_Nindex(a, Nindex)

                   Nindex <- list(integer(0), NULL, 1)
                   ## Same as a[integer(0), , 1, drop=FALSE]:
                   DelayedArray:::subset_by_Nindex(a, Nindex)

                   ## Non-normalized N-index:

                   Nindex <- list(-3, NULL, 1)
                   Nindex <- DelayedArray:::normalizeNindex(Nindex, a)
                   ## Same as a[-3, , 1, drop=FALSE]:
                   DelayedArray:::subset_by_Nindex(a, Nindex)

                   Nindex <- list(IRanges(2, 4), NULL, 1)
                   Nindex <- DelayedArray:::normalizeNindex(Nindex, a)
                   ## Same as a[2:4, , 1, drop=FALSE]:
                   DelayedArray:::subset_by_Nindex(a, Nindex)

                   dimnames(a)[[1]] <- LETTERS[1:4]
                   Nindex <- list(c("D", "B"), NULL, 1)
                   Nindex <- DelayedArray:::normalizeNindex(Nindex, a)
                   ## Same as a[c("D", "B"), , 1, drop=FALSE]:
                   DelayedArray:::subset_by_Nindex(a, Nindex)

### Value

`Lindex2Mindex` returns an M-index.

`Mindex2Lindex` returns an L-index.

### See Also

`arrayInd` in the base package.

### Examples

    dim <- 4:2
    Mindex2Lindex(c(4, 3, 1), dim)
    Mindex2Lindex(c(4, 3, 2), dim)

    Mindex <- rbind(c(1, 1, 1),
                    c(2, 1, 1),
                    c(3, 1, 1),
                    c(4, 1, 1),
                    c(1, 2, 1),
                    c(1, 1, 2),
                    c(4, 3, 2))

    Mindex2Lindex(Mindex, dim)

    ## With a matrix of dimensions:

    dims <- rbind(c(4L, 3L),
                  c(5L, 3L),
                  c(6L, 3L))

    Mindex <- rbind(c(1,  2),
                    c(1,  2),
                    c(1,  2))

    Mindex2Lindex(Mindex, dims)

    ## Sanity checks:

    dim <- c(33:30, 45L, 30L)
    stopifnot(Mindex2Lindex(rep(1, 6), dim) == 1)
    stopifnot(Mindex2Lindex(dim, dim) == prod(dim))

    stopifnot(identical(Mindex2Lindex(arrayInd(1:120, 6:4), 6:4), 1:120))
    stopifnot(identical(Mindex2Lindex(arrayInd(840:1, 4:7), 4:7), 840:1))

[Package DelayedArray version 0.12.3 Index]