2) Vectors and Factors
📖 Vectors and Factors
In this module we describe data types and their implementation in R objects like vectors and their cousins factors. We’ll focus on important concepts like:
vectors and their data types (e.g. logical, integer, double or real, and character).
creation of vectors: various ways and functions to create vectors.
implicit coercion rules: what R does when you combine values of different data types.
vectorization: when R applies calculations or operations to all the elements of a vector (element-wise).
recycling: what R does when you perform a calculation with vectors of different length.
subsetting (aka indexing, subscripting, bracket notation)
📰 Slides
🎯 Objectives
At the end of this week you will be able to:
- List the four common data types in R, and give examples for them
- Explain why R vectors are said to be atomic objects
- Describe and give an example of the implicit coercion rules
- Describe and give an example of vectorized code
- Describe and give an example of the recycling rule