extract from an array of arbitrary dimension

[<Agin.Patrick@hydro.qc.ca>]

Dear S-Users,

 

I'm trying to extract from an array x of arbitrary dimension in the following way :

 

y <- x[,1] #if x is length(dim(x)==2)

y <- x[,,1] #if x is length(dim(x)==3)

y <- x[,,,1] #if x is length(dim(x)==4)

etc..

 

The only solution I found is to transform x as a vector, extract the first n elements and rearrange the result as an array of appropriate dimensions:

 

v  <- as.vector(x)

lv <- length(v)

d  <- dim(x)

ld <- length(dim(x))

n  <- lv/d[ld]

y  <- array(v[1:n],dim=d[1:(ld-1)])

 

Is there a better way to do that?

Regards,

Patrick