Have NCOL(NULL) return 0 instead of 1.

git-svn-id: https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk@85704 00db46b3-68df-0310-9c12-caf00c1e9a41

Author: hornik

doc/NEWS.Rd

@@ -226,6 +226,9 @@
       convention once Unicode restricted the number of Unicode points
       to \eqn{2{^31} - 1}{2^31 - 1} and so will never need more than 6
       digits.)
+
+      \item \code{NCOL(NULL)} now returns 0 instead of 1, for
+      consistency with \code{cbind()}.
     }
   }
 

src/library/base/R/matrix.R

@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ nrow <- function(x) dim(x)[1L]
 ncol <- function(x) dim(x)[2L]
 
 NROW <- function(x) if(length(d <- dim(x)))      d[1L] else length(x)
-NCOL <- function(x) if(length(d <- dim(x)) > 1L) d[2L] else 1L
+NCOL <- function(x)
+    if(is.null(x)) 0L else if(length(d <- dim(x)) > 1L) d[2L] else 1L
 
 rownames <- function(x, do.NULL = TRUE, prefix = "row")
 {

src/library/base/man/nrow.Rd

@@ -52,8 +52,10 @@ NROW(1:12) # 12, the length() of the vector
 ## and so does cbind() :
 dim(as.matrix(numeric())) # 0 1
 dim(    cbind(numeric())) # ditto
-## consequently, NCOL(.) gives 1, too :
-NCOL(numeric()) # 1 and hence
-NCOL(NULL)      # 1
+NCOL(numeric()) # 1
+## However, as.matrix(NULL) fails and cbind(NULL) gives NULL, hence for
+## consistency: 
+NCOL(NULL)      # 0
+## (This gave 1 in R < 4.4.0.)
 }
 \keyword{array}

src/library/profile/Common.R

@@ -128,11 +128,3 @@ local({
 
     makeActiveBinding(".Library.site", slfun, globalenv())
 })
-
-if(isTRUE(as.logical(Sys.getenv("_R_NCOL_NULL_IS_ZERO_",
-                                "FALSE")))) {
-    NCOL <- function(x)
-        if(is.null(x)) 0L
-        else if(length(d <- dim(x)) > 1L) d[2L]
-        else 1L
-}