R has many data structures includes vector, list, matrix, data frame, and array. This article introduces each of them.
From a high level, it can be summarized as follows:
For data objects, R provides a few functions to check their features. For example,
typeof()— what data type is it?length()— how long is it?attributes()— does it have any metadata?
Atomic Vectors
Atomic vectors include six basic data types. They are
- character:
"hello","goodbye" - numeric (real or decimal):
1,-0.5 - integer:
1L(L denotes an integer. Why is “L” used as a suffix?) - logical:
TRUE,FALSE - complex:
1+2i - raw: hold raw bytes
A vector requires all the members are in the same data type.
Lists
A list allows different data types, therefore, lists in R are also called generic vectors. You can create a list using list() , and as.list() to coerce an object to a list.
Matrix
Matrix is a special array. An array can store multiple dimensions of data, while a matrix…
