\HeaderA{match}{Value Matching}{match}
\aliasA{\%in\%}{match}{.Rpcent.in.Rpcent.}
\keyword{manip}{match}
\keyword{logic}{match}
\begin{Description}\relax
\code{match} returns a vector of the positions of (first) matches of
its first argument in its second.

\code{\%in\%} is a more intuitive interface as a binary operator,
which returns a logical vector indicating if there is a match or not
for its left operand.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
match(x, table, nomatch = NA, incomparables = FALSE)

x %in% table
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{x}] vector or \code{NULL}: the values to be matched.
\item[\code{table}] vector or \code{NULL}: the values to be matched against.
\item[\code{nomatch}] the value to be returned in the case when no match is
found.  Note that it is coerced to \code{integer}.
\item[\code{incomparables}] a vector of values that cannot be matched.  Any
value in \code{x} matching a value in this vector is assigned the
\code{nomatch} value.  Currently, \code{FALSE} is the only possible
value, meaning that all values can be matched.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
\code{\%in\%} is currently defined as \\
\code{"\%in\%" <- function(x, table) match(x, table, nomatch = 0) > 0}

Factors, raw vectors and lists are converted to character vectors, and
then \code{x} and \code{table} are coerced to a common type (the later
of the two types in R's ordering, logical < integer < numeric <
complex < character) before matching.

Matching for lists is potentially very slow and best avoided except in
simple cases.

Exactly what matches what is to some extent a matter of definition.
For all types, \code{NA} matches \code{NA} and no other value.
For real and complex values, \code{NaN} values are regarded
as matching any other \code{NaN} value, but not matching \code{NA}.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
A vector of the same length as \code{x}.

\code{match}: An integer vector giving the position in \code{table} of
the first match if there is a match, otherwise \code{nomatch}.

If \code{x[i]} is found to equal \code{table[j]} then the value
returned in the \code{i}-th position of the return value is \code{j},
for the smallest possible \code{j}.  If no match is found, the value
is \code{nomatch}.

\code{\%in\%}: A logical vector, indicating if a match was located for
each element of \code{x}.
\end{Value}
\begin{References}\relax
Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988)
\emph{The New S Language}.
Wadsworth \& Brooks/Cole.
\end{References}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\LinkA{pmatch}{pmatch}} and \code{\LinkA{charmatch}{charmatch}} for (\emph{partial})
string matching, \code{\LinkA{match.arg}{match.arg}}, etc for function argument
matching.

\code{\LinkA{is.element}{is.element}} for an S-compatible equivalent of \code{\%in\%}.
\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
## The intersection of two sets :
intersect <- function(x, y) y[match(x, y, nomatch = 0)]
intersect(1:10,7:20)

1:10 %in% c(1,3,5,9)
sstr <- c("c","ab","B","bba","c","@","bla","a","Ba","%")
sstr[sstr %in% c(letters,LETTERS)]

"%w/o%" <- function(x,y) x[!x %in% y] #--  x without y
(1:10) %w/o% c(3,7,12)
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

