Arguments (in R Functions)

R function arguments are the inputs provided to a function that determine how it runs and what results it produces. Arguments are placed inside the parentheses of a function call and may represent data, options, or control settings.

Understanding function arguments is essential for correctly using R functions, customizing statistical analyses, and writing clear, reproducible data science code.

Types of Function Arguments

• Required arguments must be supplied for the function to work.
  Example:
  tally(x)

• Optional arguments have default values and can be omitted.
  Example:
  tally(x, format="proportion")

• Logical arguments use TRUE or FALSE to control behavior.
  Example:
  tally(x, margins=TRUE)

• Positional arguments are matched by their order in the function.
  Example:
  rnorm(10, 0, 1)

• Named arguments are matched by name and can be given in any order.
  Example:
  rnorm(n = 10, mean = 0, sd = 1)