cast_dim2flat: Cast Dimensional List into a Flattened List

In broadcast: Broadcasted Array Operations Like 'NumPy'

Cast Dimensional List into a Flattened List

Description

cast_dim2flat() casts a dimensional list (i.e. recursive array) into a flat list (i.e. recursive vector), but with names that indicate the original dimensional positions of the elements.

Primary purpose for this function is to facilitate printing or summarizing dimensional lists.

Usage

cast_dim2flat(x, ...)

## Default S3 method:
cast_dim2flat(x, ...)

Arguments

x	a list
...	further arguments passed to or from methods.

Value

A flattened list, with names that indicate the original dimensional positions of the elements.

See Also

broadcast_casting

Examples

x <- array(
  sample(list(letters, month.name, 1:10 ~ "foo"), prod(4:2), TRUE),
  dim = 4:2,
  dimnames = list(NULL, LETTERS[1:3], c("x", "y"))
)


# summarizing ====
summary(x) # dimensional information is lost

# In the following instances, dimensional position info is retained:
cast_dim2flat(x) |> summary()

cast_dim2flat(x[1:3, 1:2, 2, drop = FALSE]) |> summary()

cast_dim2flat(x[1:3, 1:2, 2, drop = TRUE]) |> summary()


# printing ====
print(x) # too compact
cast_dim2flat(x) |> print() # much less compact

broadcast documentation built on Aug. 20, 2026, 9:08 a.m.