r how to keep print method for custom class

Question

i have defined a method for printing a vector with the class test:

print.test <- function(x,  ...) {
    x <- formatC(
        as.numeric(x),
        format = "f",
        big.mark = ".",
        decimal.mark = ",",
        digits = 1
        )
    x[x == "NA"] <- "-"
    x[x == "NaN"] <- "-"
    print.default(x)
}

which works fine for the following

a <- c(1000.11, 2000.22, 3000.33)
class(a) <- c("test", class(a))
print(a)
[1] "1.000,11" "2.000,22" "3.000,33"

this also works:

round(a)
[1] "1.000,0" "2.000,0" "3.000,0"

this does not:

median(a)
[1] 2000.22
class(median(a))
[1] "numeric"

now my question is: do i need to write a custom method for this class to use median e.g. and if so what would it look like or is there another way (as i simply would like this class to print the data in a certain format)?

Answer 1

The problem is that median.default returns an object of class numeric therefore autoprinting of the returned object does not call your custom print method.
The following will do so.

median.test <- function(x, na.rm = FALSE, ...){
    y <- NextMethod(x, na.rm = na.rm, ...)
    class(y) <- c("test", class(y))
    y
}

median(a)
#[1] "2.000,2"

As for the handling of NA values, I will first define another method for a base R function. It is not strictly needed but save some code lines if objects of class test are used frequently.

c.test <- function(x, ...){
    y <- NextMethod(x, ...)
    class(y) <- c("test", class(y))
    y
}


b <- c(a, NA)
class(b)
#[1] "test"    "numeric"

median(b)
#[1] "-"

median(b, na.rm = TRUE)
#[1] "2.000,2"

EDIT.

The following defines a generic function wMedian, a default method and a method for objects of class "currency", as requested by the OP in a comment.

Note that there must be a method print.currency, which I don't redefine since it's exactly the same as print.test above. As for the other methods, I have made them simpler with the help of a new function, as.currency.

median.currency <- function(x, na.rm = FALSE, ...){
  y <- NextMethod(x, na.rm = na.rm, ...)
  as.currency(y)
}

c.currency <- function(x, ...){
  y <- NextMethod(x, ...)
  as.currency(y)
}

as.currency <- function(x){
  class(x) <- c("currency", class(x))
  x
}

wMedian <- function(x, ...) UseMethod("wMedian")
wMedian.default <- function(x, ...){
    matrixStats::weightedMedian(x, ...)
}

wMedian.currency <- function(x, w = NULL, idxs = NULL, na.rm = FALSE, interpolate = is.null(ties), ties = NULL, ...) {
  y <- NextMethod(x, w = w, idxs = idxs, na.rm = na.rm, interpolate = interpolate, ties = ties, ... ) 
  as.currency(y)
}


set.seed(1)
x <- rnorm(10)
wMedian(x, w = (1:10)/10)
#[1] 0.4084684
wMedian(as.currency(x), w = (1:10)/10)
#[1] "0,4"