I have a matrix in R. When I run class(my.matrix) it returns:
"matrix" "array"
Why do I get "array" when in fact I want a plain matrix? The same class output is returned when running as.matrix(my.matrix)).
Why is that?
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2 Answers
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class() on a matrix will always return:
"matrix" "array"
Simple example:
> class(as.matrix(1))
[1] "matrix" "array"
This is because an array in R is a vector with multiple dimensions, and the matrix is a special type of array with exactly two dimensions, so every matrix is an array and this is what the class command on a matrix is telling us here, see http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Data-structures.html
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From the return value of the class function, it looks like this already is a matrix. It just happens that it is considered by R to be both a matrix and an array.
