What is a Class and its Types?
In this lesson, we will learn what Classes and their types are and how to create them in the R language.
We'll cover the following
Introduction
Functional languages like R make use of the concepts of objects and classes. An object is comprised of a set of variables and functions. A class is a blueprint for an object. It refers to the set of attributes or functions common to all objects of a specific type.
Class Types
R includes 3 class systems, compared to other programming languages that have only one class system.
S3 class
S4 class
Reference class (RC)
Each has unique features and characteristics, so selecting one over the other comes down to personal preference. We provide a concise overview of them below.
S3 Class
The nature of an S3 class is relatively primitive. The object of this class can be generated by simply adding a class attribute to it, and it has no formal definition. Following is an example to make things more clear:
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