A bitwhich object represents a boolean filter like a bit() object (NAs are not
allowed) but uses a sparse representation suitable for very skewed (asymmetric)
selections. Three extreme cases are represented with logical values, no length via
logical(), all TRUE with TRUE and all FALSE with FALSE. All other
selections are represented with positive or negative integers, whatever is shorter.
This needs less RAM compared to logical() (and often less than bit() or
which()). Logical operations are fast if the selection is asymmetric
(only few or almost all selected).
an object of class 'bitwhich' carrying two attributes
maxindex: see above
poslength: see above
Arguments
maxindex
length of the vector
x
Information about which positions are FALSE or TRUE: either logical() or
TRUE or FALSE or a integer vector of positive or of negative subscripts.
xempty
what to assume about parameter x if x=integer(0), typically TRUE
or FALSE.
poslength
tuning: poslength is calculated automatically, you can give
poslength explicitly, in this case it must be correct and x must be sorted and
not have duplicates.
is.unsorted
tuning: FALSE implies that x is already sorted and sorting
is skipped