getPackageName            package:methods            R Documentation

The Name associated with a Given Package

Description:

     The functions below produce the package associated with a
     particular environment or position on the search list, or of the
     package containing a particular function.  They are primarily used
     to support computations that need to differentiate objects on
     multiple packages.

Usage:

     getPackageName(where)

     packageSlot(object)
     packageSlot(object) <- value

Arguments:

   where: the environment or position on the search list associated
          with the desired package.

  object: object providing a character string name, plus the package in
          which this object is to be found.

   value: the name of the package.

Details:

     Package names are normally installed during loading of the
     package, by the INSTALL script or by the 'library' function. 
     (Currently, the name is stored as the object '.packageName' but
     don't trust this for the future.)

Value:

     'packageName' return the character-string name of the package
     (without the extraneous '"package:"' found in the search list).

     'packageSlot' returns or sets the package name slot (currently an
     attribute, not a formal slot, but this will likely change).

See Also:

     'search'

Examples:

     ## both the following usually return "base"
     getPackageName(length(search()))

