\name{as}
\alias{as}
\alias{as<-}
\alias{coerce}
\alias{coerce<-}
\alias{setAs}
\title{Force an Object to Belong to a Class}
\description{
  These functions manage the relations that allow coercing an object to
  a given class.
}
\usage{
as(object, Class, coerceFlag=TRUE)

as(object, Class, coerceFlag=TRUE) <- value

setAs(from, to, def, replace, where = 1)

}
\section{Summary of Functions}{
  \describe{
    \item{\code{as}:}{
      Returns the version of this object coerced to be the given
      \code{Class}.
  
      If the corresponding \code{is} relation is true, it will be used.
      In particular, if the relation has a coerce method, the method
      will be invoked on \code{object}.

      If the \code{is} relation is \code{FALSE}, and \code{coerceFlag}
      is \code{TRUE}, the coerce function will be called (which will
      throw an error if there is no valid way to coerce the two
      objects).  Otherwise, \code{NULL} is returned.

      Coerce methods are pre-defined for basic classes (including all
      the types of vectors, functions and a few others).  The object
      \code{asFunctions} contains the list of such pre-defined
      relations: \code{names(asFunctions)} gives the names of all the
      classes.

      Beyond these two sources of methods, further methods are defined
      by calls to the \code{setAs} function.
    }

    \item{\code{coerce}:}{
      Coerce \code{from} to be of the same class as \code{to}.

      Not a function you should usually call explicitly.  The function
      \code{\link{setAs}} creates methods for \code{coerce} for the
      \code{as} function to use.
    }

    \item{\code{setAs}:}{
      The function supplied as the third argument is to be called to
      implement \code{as(x, to)} when \code{x} has class \code{from}.
      Need we add that the function should return a suitable object with
      class \code{to}.
    }
  }
}
\arguments{
  \item{object}{ Any object. }
  \item{Class}{ The name of the class to which \code{object} should be
    coerced. }
  \item{coerceFlag}{ A logical flag.  If \code{FALSE},  only inheritance
    relations will be used; i.e., \code{is(object, Class)} must be
    \code{TRUE}, and if not, \code{NULL} is returned.

    If the flag is \code{TRUE}, however, coerce methods will be called
    if inheritance is not true (and an error will result if coercion
    fails).}
  \item{value}{The value to use to modify \code{object} (see the
    discussion below).  You should supply an object with class
    \code{Class}; some coercion is done, but you're unwise to rely on
    it.}

  \item{from, to}{ The classes between which \code{def} performs coercion.

    (In the case of the \code{coerce} function these are objects from
    the classes, not the names of the classes, but you're not expected
    to call \code{coerce} directly.)}
  \item{def}{ A function of one argument.  It will get an object from
    class \code{from} and had better return an object of class
    \code{to}. (If you want to save \code{setAs} a little work, make
    the name of the argument \code{from}, but don't worry about it,
    \code{setAs} will do the conversion.) }
  \item{replace}{If supplied, the function to use as a replacement
    method.}
  \item{where}{ The position or environment in which to store the resulting method for
    \code{coerce}; by default, the global environment. }
}

%% <FIXME>
%% Currently Rdconv cannot deal with markup in section titles.
%% \section{How Functions \code{as} and \code{setAs} Work}{
\section{How Functions `as' and `setAs' Work}{
  %% </FIXME>
  The function \code{as} contrives to turn \code{object} into an object
  with class \code{Class}.  In doing so, it uses information about
  classes and methods, but in a somewhat special way.  Keep in mind
  that objects from one class can turn into objects from another class
  either automatically or by an explicit call to the \code{as}
  function. Automatic conversion is special, and comes from the
  designer of one class of objects asserting that this class extends a
  another class  (see \code{\link{setClass}} and \code{\link{setIs}}).

  Because inheritance is a powerful assertion, it should be used
  sparingly (otherwise your computations may produce unexpected, and
  perhaps incorrect, results).  But objects can also be converted
  explicitly, by calling \code{as}, and that conversion is designed to
  use any inheritance information, as well as explicit methods.

  As a first step in conversion, the \code{as} function determines
  whether \code{is(object, Class)} is \code{TRUE}.  This can be the case
  either because the class definition of \code{object} includes
  \code{Class} as a ``super class'' (directly or indirectly), or because
  a call to \code{\link{setIs}} established the relationship.

  Either way, the inheritance relation defines a method to coerce
  \code{object} to \code{Class}.  In the most common case, the method
  is just to extract from \code{object} the slots needed for
  \code{Class}, but it's also possible to specify a method explicitly in
  a \code{\link{setIs}} call.

  So, if inheritance applies, the \code{as} function calls the
  appropriate method.  If inheritance does not apply, and
  \code{coerceFlag} is \code{FALSE}, \code{NULL} is returned.

  By default, \code{coerceFlag} is \code{TRUE}.  In this case the
  \code{as} function goes on to look for a method for the function
  \code{coerce} for the signature \code{c(from = class(object), to =
    Class)}.

  Method selection is used in the \code{as} function in two special
  ways.
  First,  inheritance is
  applied for the argument \code{from} but not for the argument
  \code{to} (if you think about it, you'll probably agree that you
  wouldn't want the result to be from some class other than the
  \code{Class} specified).
  Second, the function tries to use inheritance information to convert
  the object indirectly, by first converting it to an inherited class.
  It does this by examining the classes that the \code{from} class
  extends, to see if any of them has an explicit conversion method.
  Suppose class \code{"by"} does:  Then the \code{as} function
  implicitly computes \code{as(as(object, "by"), Class)}.

  With this explanation as background, the function \code{setAs} does a
  fairly obvious computation:  It constructs and sets a method for the function
  \code{coerce} with signature \code{c(from, to)}, using the \code{def}
  argument to define the body of the method.  The function supplied as
  \code{def} can have one argument (interpreted as an object to be
  coerced) or two arguments (the \code{from} object and the \code{to}
  class).  Either way, \code{setAs} constructs a function of two
  arguments, with the second defaulting to the name of the \code{to}
  class.  The method will be called from \code{as} with the object
  as the only argument:  The default for the
  second argument is provided so the method can know the intended
  \code{to} class.

  The function \code{coerce}
  exists almost entirely as a repository for such methods, to be
  selected as desribed above by the \code{as} function.
  In fact, it
  would usually be a bad idea to call \code{coerce} directly, since then
  you would get inheritance on the \code{to} argument; as mentioned,
  this is not likely to be what you want.
}

%% <FIXME>
%% Currently Rdconv cannot deal with markup in section titles.
%% \section{The Function \code{as} Used in Replacements}{
\section{The Function `as' Used in Replacements}{
  %% </FIXME>    
  When \code{as} appears on the left of an assignment, the intuitive
  meaning is ``Replace the part of \code{object} that was inherited from
  \code{Class} by the \code{value} on the right of the assignment.''

  This usually has a straightforward interpretation, but you can control
  explicitly what happens, and sometimes you should to avoid possible
  corruption of objects.

  When \code{object} inherits from \code{Class} in the usual way, by
  including the slots of \code{Class}, the default \code{as} method is
  to set the corresponding slots in \code{object} to those in
  \code{value}.

  The default computation may be reasonable, but usually only if all
  \emph{other} slots in \code{object} are unrelated to the slots being
  changed.  Often, however, this is not the case.  The class of
  \code{object} may have extended \code{Class} with a new slot whose
  value depends on the inherited slots.  In this case, you may want to
  define a method for replacing the inherited information that
  recomputes all the dependent information.  Or, you may just want to
  prohibit replacing the inherited information directly .

  The way to control such replacements is through the \code{replace}
  argument to function \code{setIs}.  This argument is a method that
  function \code{as} calls when used for replacement.  It can do
  whatever you like, including calling \code{stop} if you want to
  prohibit replacements.  It should return a modified object with the
  same class as the \code{object} argument to \code{as}.

  In R, you can also explicitly supply a replacement method, even in the
  case that inheritance does not apply, through the \code{replace}
  argument to \code{setAs}.  It works essentially the same way, but in
  this case by constructing a method for \code{"coerce<-"}.  (Replace
  methods for coercion without inheritance are not in the original
  description and so may not be compatible with S-Plus, at least not
  yet.)

  When inheritance does apply, coerce and replace methods can be
  specified through either \code{setIs} or \code{setAs}; the effect is
  essentially the same.
  }

\references{
  The web page \url{http://www.omegahat.org/RSMethods/index.html} is the
  primary documentation.

  The functions in this package emulate the facility for classes and
  methods described in \emph{Programming with Data} (John M. Chambers,
  Springer, 1998).  See this book for further details and examples.
}

\examples{
## using the definition of class "track" from \link{Classes}

\testonly{
setClass("track",
            representation(x="numeric", y="numeric"))
setClass("trackCurve",
            representation("track", smooth = "numeric"))
}

setAs("track", "numeric", function(from)from@y)

t1 <- new("track", x=1:20, y=(1:20)^2)

as(t1, "numeric")

## The next example shows:
##  1. A virtual class to define setAs for several classes at once.
##  2. as() using inherited information

setClass("ca", representation(a = "character", id = "numeric"))

setClass("cb", representation(b = "character", id = "numeric"))


setClass("id")
setIs("ca", "id")
setIs("cb", "id")


setAs("id", "numeric", function(from) from@id)

CA <- new("ca", a ="A", id = 1)

CB <- new("cb", b = "B", id = 2)

setAs("cb", "ca", function(from, to )new(to, a=from@b, id = from@id))

as(CB, "numeric")

\testonly{
## should generate an error (should have been a function of one argument)
try(setAs("track", "numeric", function(x, y,z)x@y))

}

}

\author{
  John Chambers
}
\keyword{programming}
\keyword{classes}
\keyword{methods}
