Arguments (in R Functions)
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)
Related Articles
R Function
An R function is a reusable block of code in the R programming language that performs a specific task. Functions accept inputs (called arguments), execute a set of instructions, and return an output. They are fundamental to writing efficient, ...
R Objects
R Objects Overview In R, everything is an object. Data, functions, models, and even results of calculations are all stored as objects. Understanding R objects is fundamental to working with data, writing reproducible code, and performing statistical ...
factor (in R)
Factor (in R) is a type of R object that is a categorical variable.
numeric (in R)
Numeric (in R) is a type of R object that is a quantitative variable.
Using the R Sandbox
The R Sandbox The R Sandbox is a separate R window you can use to experiment with R code and play around with ideas from the course. It comes pre-loaded with the base R packages and all of the packages and datasets we reference in the textbook. ...