Why doesn't R allow $ operator on atomic vectors?

Question

The following will throw the error \"Error in v$a : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors\" (at least in R version 2.14.1):

v <- c(a=\'a\',b=\'b\')
v$a         


        

Answer 1

I believe the reason is that the use of v$a vs. v[['a']] is considered less safe.

EDIT: Check out this LINK for more details.