R Cheatsheet

Notes:
1. This is by no means a comprehensive list, as a large number of useful functions have been left out, and not all options for
the functions listed have been given. This list is purely intented to give a place to begin, as I remember how frustrating it
was to not even know what to start looking for!
2. Typing ?functionname at the command line brings up a help window for the function name listed.
3. Assume in the examples that all vectors and matrices (vi’s and mati’s) have been created.

Command Example Result

Operators
General
<- Assignment operator (suggested) ans1 <- 1 1
= Assignment operator ans2 = 1+1 2
# Comment #This is a comment
Mathematical
+ Addition 2.5+ans3 5.5
- Subtraction ans3-2.5 0.5
* Scalar multiplication 2*3 6
/ Division operator 6/2 3
^ Exponentiation 2^3 8

Logical/Relational
== Equals ans3==3 TRUE
!= Not Equal ans3!=3 FALSE
> Greater Than ans3>3 FALSE
>= Greater Than or Equal To ans3>=3 TRUE
< Less Than ans3<3 FALSE
<= Less Than or Equal To ans3<=3 TRUE
|| Or ans1==2 || ans2==2 TRUE
| Or (use with vectors and matrices) v2[v1==3 | v1==4] {3,5}
&& And ans1==2 && ans2==2 FALSE
& And (use with vectors and matrices) v2[v1==3 & v1==4] {NA}
%*% Matrix multiplication mat1%*%mat1

Functions
sqrt Square root sqrt(16) 4
exp Exponentiation exp(1) 2.718282
log Natural log log(2.718282) 1
sum Sum sum(2,3,4) 9
prod Product prod(2,3,4) 24
ceiling Smallest integer ≥number ceiling(2.1) 2
floor Integer part of a number floor(2.1) 2
abs Absolute value abs(-0.2) 0.2
sin Sine sin(pi/2) 1
cos Cosine cos(pi) -1
tan Tangent tan(pi/4) 1
table Calculate frequency counts of a vector table(v4) 135
[3 3 3]
Vector/Matrix Functions
Vector creation functions
c Concatenate v1 <- c(2,3,4) 2,3,4
v2 <- c(1,3,5) 1,3,5
seq Sequence v3 <- seq(from=2, to=10, by=2) 2,4,6,8,10
seq(from=2, to=4, length=5) 2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5,4.0
: Integer sequence 2:10 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
rep Repeat v4 <- rep(v2, 3) 1,3,5,1,3,5,1,3,5
 Combining vectors to create matrices
⎛ 2 1⎞
⎜ ⎟
cbind Column bind mat1 <- cbind(v1,v2) ⎜3 3⎟
⎜ 4 5⎟
⎝ ⎠
⎛2 3 4⎞
rbind Row bind mat2 <- rbind(v1,v2) ⎜
⎝1 3
⎟
5⎠
⎛0 0 0⎞
matrix Create matrix matrix(0, nrow=2, ncol=3) ⎜
⎝0 0
⎟
0⎠

as.data.frame Create dataset from matrix A<-as.data.frame(mat1)

⎛2 1⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎜3 3⎟
⎜4 5 ⎟⎠
⎝
Utility functions
[] Subscript operator (Vectors) answer <- v1[3] 4
[,] Subscript operator (2D) answer <- mat1[1,1] 2
answer <- mat1[,1] 2,1
answer <- mat1[1,] 2,3,4
⎛ 3 3⎞
answer <- mat1[-1,] ⎜ ⎟
⎝ 4 5⎠
[,,] Subscript operator (3D) answer <- arr1[2,4,3] 114
length Length of vector length(v4) 9
sort Sort a vector sort(v4) 1,1,1,3,3,3,5,5,5
order Indices to sort a vector order(v4) 1,4,7,2,5,8,3,6,9
Useful for sorting matrices v4[v4.order] 1,1,1,3,3,3,5,5,5
rev Reverse order of vector rev(v3) 10,8,6,4,2
unique Lists unique objects in vector or matrix unique(v4) 1,3,5
Statistics
max Maximum of vector or matrix max(v4) 5
min Minimum of vector or matrix min(mat1) 1
pmax Parallel maximum of vectors/matrices pmax(v1,v2) 2,3,5
pmin Parallel minimum of vectors/matrices pmin(v1,v2) 1,3,4
mean Calculates mean of vector or matrix mean(mat1) 3
median Calculates median of vector or matrix median(v3) 6
quantile Calculate quantiles requested quantile(1:5,probs=c(0,0.25,0.5,0.75,1))
1,2,3,4,5
var Calculate variance of vector var(v3) 10
cor Calculates correlation of 2 vectors cor(v4,1:9) 0.3162

Distributions
d<dist>(x,<parameters>) density at x dunif(1.4,min=1,max=3) 0.5
p<dist>(x,<parameters>) CDF evaluated at x pnorm(1.645,0,1) 0.95
q<dist>(x,<parameters>) inverse cdf qnorm(0.95,0,1) 1.645
r<dist>(x,<parameters>) generates n random numbers rbeta(3, shape1=0.5, shape2=1)
0.175083,0.668609,0.009384

<dist> Distribution Parameters Defaults

beta Beta shape1, shape2 -,-
cauchy Cauchy location, scale 0,1
chisq Chi-square df -
exp Exponential - -
f F df1, df2 -,-
gamma Gamma shape -
lnorm Log-normal mean, sd (of 0,1
log)
Logis Logistic location, scale 0,1
norm Normal mean, sd 0,1
stab Stable index, skew -,0
t Student’s t df -
 unif Uniform min, max 0,1

For Loops ## calculate 5! using a for loop

for(i in <vector>){ do stuff } ans <- 1
for(i in 1:5){ ans <- ans*i }
ans 120

if/else ## Threshold ans at 100

if(<logical value>) { do stuff } if(ans > 100){ ans2 <- 100}
else { do other stuff } else{ ans2 <- ans}
ans2 100

Functions
func.name <- function(arg1, arg2, ...){ do stuff; return(ans)} ## Function to do factorial
my.factorial <- function(x){
if(!is.integer(x))
stop(“x must be an integer”)
ans <- 1
for(i in 1:x){ ans <- ans*i }
return(ans)
}
my.factorial(5) 120

Useful links:
http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/usingR-2.pdf
http://www.isds.duke.edu/computing/S/Snotes/Splus.html
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/S/cheatsheet