Get memory address of an R object

memory_address.R

memoryAddress <- function(x)
  strsplit(capture.output(.Internal(inspect(x))),split=" ")[[1]][1]

### Usage examples

#  > abc <- c(1,2,3,10,11)
#  > xyz <- abc
#  > memoryAddress(abc)==memoryAddress(xyz)
#  [1] TRUE
#  > xyz <- abc+1
#  > memoryAddress(abc)==memoryAddress(xyz)
#  [1] FALSE

#  > abc <- c(1,2,3,10,11)
#  > xyz <- abc
#  > memoryAddress(abc)==memoryAddress(xyz)
#  [1] TRUE
#  > xyz <- unserialize(serialize(abc,NULL)) # "deep copy" hack
#  > memoryAddress(abc)==memoryAddress(xyz)
#  [1] FALSE
#  > identical(abc,xyz)
#  [1] TRUE