This is an s4 class extension of matrix with 7 additional slots. A worldMatrix object can be viewed as a grid composed of squared patches (i.e., matrix cells). Patches have two spatial coordinates pxcor and pycor, representing the location of their center. pxcor and pycor are always integer and increment by 1. pxcor increases as you move right and pycor increases as you move up. pxcor and pycor can be negative if there are patches to the left or below the patch [pxcor = 0, pycor = 0].

Details

The first four slots of the worldMatrix are: minPxcor, maxPxcor, minPycor, maxPycor which represent the minimum and maximum patches coordinates in the worldMatrix. The slot extent is similar to a Raster* extent. Because pxcor and pycor represent the spatial location at the center of the patches and the resolution of them is 1, the extent of the worldMatrix is equal to xmin = minPxcor - 0.5, xmax = maxPxcor + 0.5, ymin = minPycor - 0.5, and ymax = maxPycor + 0.5. The number of patches in a worldMatrix is equal to ((maxPxcor - minPxcor) + 1) * ((maxPycor - minPycor) + 1). The slot res is equal to 1 as it is the spatial resolution of the patches. The last slot pCoords is a matrix representing the patches coordinates of all the matrix cells in the order of cells in a Raster* (i.e., by rows).

Careful: The methods [] and [] <- retrieve or assign values for the patches in the given order of the patches coordinates provided. When no patches coordinates are provided, the values retrieved or assigned is done in the order of the cell numbers as defined in in Raster* objects (i.e., by rows).

References

Wilensky, U. 1999. NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL.

worldArray