Starting from a binary neighbours list, in which regions are either listed as neighbours or are absent (thus not in the set of neighbours for some definition), the function creates an n by n weights matrix with values given by the coding scheme style chosen. B is the basic binary coding, W is row standardised, C is globally standardised, while S is the variance-stabilizing coding scheme proposed by Tiefelsdorf et al. 1999, p. 167-168.
The function leaves matrix rows as zero for any regions with zero neighbours fore zero.policy TRUE. These will in turn generate lag values of zero, equivalent to the sum of products of the zero row t(rep(0, length=length(neighbours))) %*% x, for arbitraty numerical vector x of length length(neighbours). The spatially lagged value of x for the zero-neighbour region will then be zero, which may (or may not) be a sensible choice.