Scale the Columns of a Matrix in R Programming - scale() Function

The scale() function in R is used to center and/or scale the columns of a numeric matrix. It helps standardize data by transforming it to have a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1 .

Syntax

scale(x, center = TRUE, scale = TRUE)

Parameters:

• x: represents numeric matrix .
• center: represents either logical value or numeric alike vector equal to the number of x .
• scale: represents either logical value or numeric alike vector equal to the number of x.

Example 1: 

In this example, a 2x5 matrix is created and then standardized using the scale() function, which centers each column by subtracting its mean and scales it by dividing by its standard deviation.

mt <- matrix(1:10, ncol = 5)

cat("Matrix:\n")
head(mt)

# Scale matrix with default arguments
cat("\nAfter scaling:\n")
scale(mt)

Output:

Example 2: 

In this example, a 5x4 matrix is created and then the scale() function is used in two ways: first to center the matrix by subtracting a specified vector of values from each column and second to scale the matrix by dividing each column by a specified vector of values.

mt <- matrix(1:20, ncol = 4)
head(mt)

# Scale center by vector of values
cat("\nScale center by vector of values:\n")
scale(mt, center = c(1, 2, 3, 4), scale = FALSE)

# Scale by vector of values
cat("\nScale by vector of values:\n")
scale(mt, center = FALSE, scale = c(1, 2, 3, 4))

Output: