\name{apropos}
\title{Find Objects by (Partial) Name}
\usage{
apropos(what, where = FALSE, mode = "any")

find(what, mode = "any", numeric. = FALSE, simple.words = TRUE)
}
\alias{apropos}
\alias{find}
\arguments{
  \item{what}{name of an object, or \link{regular expression} to match against}
  \item{where, numeric.}{a logical indicating whether positions in the
    search list should also be returned}
  \item{mode}{character; if not \code{"any"}, only objects whose
    \code{\link{mode}} equals \code{mode} are searched.}
  \item{simple.words}{logical; if \code{TRUE}, the \code{what} argument is
    only searched as whole word.}
}
\description{
  \code{apropos} returns a character vector giving the names of
  all objects in the search list matching \code{what}.

  \code{find} is a different user interface to the same task as \code{apropos}.
}
\details{
  If \code{mode != "any"} only those objects which are of mode \code{mode}
  are considered.
  If \code{where} is \code{TRUE}, the positions in the search list are
  returned as the names attribute.

  \code{find} is a different user interface for the same task as \code{apropos}.
  However, by default (\code{simple.words == TRUE}), only full words are
  searched with \code{grep(fixed = TRUE)}.
}
\author{Kurt Hornik and Martin Maechler (May 1997).}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{glob2rx}} to convert wildcard patterns to regular expressions.
  
  \code{\link{objects}} for listing objects from one place,
  \code{\link{help.search}} for searching the help system,
  \code{\link{search}} for the search path.
}
\examples{
%% some of these have enormous output that varies a lot by version
\dontrun{apropos("lm")}
apropos(ls)
apropos("lq")

cor <- 1:pi
find(cor)        #> ".GlobalEnv"   "package:stats"
find(cor, num=TRUE) # numbers with these names
find(cor, num=TRUE, mode="function")# only the second one
rm(cor)

\dontrun{apropos(".", mode="list") # a long list}

# need a DOUBLE backslash '\\\\' (in case you don't see it anymore)
apropos("\\\\[")

\dontrun{# everything % not diff-able
length(apropos("."))

# those starting with 'pr'
apropos("^pr")

# the 1-letter things
apropos("^.$")
# the 1-2-letter things
apropos("^..?$")
# the 2-to-4 letter things
apropos("^.{2,4}$")

# the 8-and-more letter things
apropos("^.{8,}$")
table(nchar(apropos("^.{8,}$")))
}}
\keyword{data}
\keyword{documentation}
\keyword{environment}