sum of S4 objects in R

Question

I have a S4 class and I would like to define the linear combination of these objects.

Is it possible to dispatch * and + functions on this specific class?

Answer 1

here is an example:

setClass("yyy", representation(v="numeric"))

setMethod("+", signature(e1 = "yyy", e2 = "yyy"), function (e1, e2) e1@v + e2@v)
setMethod("+", signature(e1 = "yyy", e2 = "numeric"), function (e1, e2) e1@v + e2)

then,

> y1 <- new("yyy", v = 1)
> y2 <- new("yyy", v = 2)
> 
> y1 + y2
[1] 3
> y1 + 3
[1] 4