Test if a vector contains a given element
Both the match() (returns the first appearance) and %in% (returns a Boolean) functions are designed for this.
v <- c('a','b','c','e')
'b' %in% v
## returns TRUE
match('b',v)
## returns the first location of 'b', in this case: 2
is.element() makes for more readable code, and is identical to %in%
v <- c('a','b','c','e')
is.element('b', v)
'b' %in% v
## both return TRUE
is.element('f', v)
'f' %in% v
## both return FALSE
subv <- c('a', 'f')
subv %in% v
## returns a vector TRUE FALSE
is.element(subv, v)
## returns a vector TRUE FALSE