R object identification

Question

I am often ending up with a function producing output for which I don't understand the output data type. I'm expecting a list and it ends up being a list of lists or a data frame or something else. What's a good method or workflow for figuring out the output data type when first using a function?

Answer 1

I usually start out with some combination of:

typeof(obj)
class(obj)
sapply(obj, class)
sapply(obj, attributes)
attributes(obj)
names(obj)

as appropriate based on what's revealed. For example, try with:

obj <- data.frame(a=1:26, b=letters)
obj <- list(a=1:26, b=letters, c=list(d=1:26, e=letters))
data(cars)
obj <- lm(dist ~ speed, data=cars)

..etc.

If obj is an S3 or S4 object, you can also try methods or showMethods, showClass, etc. Patrick Burns' R Inferno has a pretty good section on this (sec #7).

EDIT: Dirk and Hadley mention str(obj) in their answers. It really is much better than any of the above for a quick and even detailed peek into an object.