| % File src/library/base/man/ns-dblcolon.Rd |
| % Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org |
| % Copyright 1995-2015 R Core Team |
| % Distributed under GPL 2 or later |
| |
| \name{ns-dblcolon} |
| \title{Double Colon and Triple Colon Operators} |
| \alias{::} |
| \alias{:::} |
| \description{ |
| Accessing exported and internal variables, i.e.\sspace{}\R objects |
| (including lazy loaded data sets) in a namespace. |
| } |
| \usage{ |
| pkg::name |
| pkg:::name |
| } |
| \arguments{ |
| \item{pkg}{package name: symbol or literal character string.} |
| \item{name}{variable name: symbol or literal character string.} |
| } |
| \details{ |
| For a package \pkg{pkg}, \code{pkg::name} returns the value of the |
| exported variable \code{name} in namespace \code{pkg}, whereas |
| \code{pkg:::name} returns the value of the internal variable |
| \code{name}. The package namespace will be loaded if it was not |
| loaded before the call, but the package will not be attached to the |
| search path. |
| |
| Specifying a variable or package that does not exist is an error. |
| |
| Note that \code{pkg::name} does \strong{not} access the objects in the |
| environment \code{package:pkg} (which does not exist until the |
| package's namespace is attached): the latter may contain objects not |
| exported from the namespace. It can access datasets made available by |
| lazy-loading. |
| } |
| |
| \note{ |
| It is typically a design mistake to use \code{:::} |
| in your code since the corresponding object has probably been kept |
| internal for a good reason. Consider contacting the package |
| \code{\link{maintainer}} if you feel the need to access the object for |
| anything but mere inspection. |
| } |
| \seealso{ |
| \code{\link{get}} to access an object masked by another of the same name. |
| \code{\link{loadNamespace}}, \code{\link{asNamespace}} for more about |
| namespaces. |
| } |
| \examples{ |
| base::log |
| base::"+" |
| |
| ## Beware -- use ':::' at your own risk! (see "Details") |
| stats:::coef.default |
| } |
| \keyword{programming} |