Partial matching is a feature of the [[ and $ operators in R that allows you to extract elements from a list or vector by name, even if you don't know the exact name of the element.
For example, the following code would extract the element named "aardvark" from the list x:
x <- list(aardvark = 1:5)
x$a
This code would work even if the element was actually named "aardvark_with_underscores".
Partial matching can be a very useful feature, but it's important to use it carefully. If you're writing longer scripts or functions, you should avoid using partial matching, as it can make your code less readable and less maintainable.
Note
- Partial matching is only allowed with the [[ and $ operators.
- Partial matching is case-insensitive.
- If there are multiple elements with the same partial name, R will only return the first element that it finds.
