25/01/2024, 12:30 Week 1: Review and Introduction to Data Analysis

Review of basic R
In this section, we revisit basic concepts and usage of R. You may skip the section if you are comfortable
using R.

With R, you can

Compute simple arithmetic operations:

2 / 5 + (5 - 4) * 1

## [1] 1.4

Evaluate logical statements:

5 > 2 && 3 != 5 && 2 == 2

## [1] TRUE

Simulate and plot data:

plot(rnorm(25))

In this class, we will use R to study data.

Variables and data types

You can store values to variables such as
numbers:

my_number <- 5
my_number

## [1] 5

characters:

my_characters <- "this is a single sentence."

my_characters

## [1] "this is a single sentence."

logicals:

my_logical <- TRUE

my_logical

## [1] TRUE

sequences of a single data type called vectors:

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25/01/2024, 12:30 Week 1: Review and Introduction to Data Analysis

my_vector <- c(2, 3, 7)

my_vector

## [1] 2 3 7

To extract elements from a vector, you can use

the positional indices inside [ starting with 1:

my_vector[1]

## [1] 2

my_vector[c(1, 3)]

## [1] 2 7

a logical vector of the same length to extract elements at TRUE positions:

my_vector[c(FALSE, FALSE, TRUE)]

## [1] 7

my_vector[c(T, F, T)]

## [1] 2 7

You can create empty vectors of length n with:

n <- 5
numeric(n) # numbers

## [1] 0 0 0 0 0

character(n) # characters

## [1] "" "" "" "" ""

logical(n) # logicals

## [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

Exercise 1
Create a vector that consists of day of your birthday and your first name. Print the vector and comment on its data
type.

R CODE  START OVER  HINT  RUN CODE

1 birth_name <- c(26, "Aditya")

2 birth_name
3

[1] "26" "Aditya"

Functions
In R, a function is in the following form:

<function name>(<arg1>, <arg2>, ...)

You can store the result of a function with result <- function_x(...)

R CODE  START OVER  RUN CODE

1 sum_of_237 <- sum(c(2, 3, 7))

2 sum_of_237
3

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25/01/2024, 12:30 Week 1: Review and Introduction to Data Analysis

[1] 12

You can look at the help page of each function with ?<function name> . Whenever you need help using a function,
try the help page first. A quick search on the Internet will often provide many examples as well.

R CODE  START OVER  RUN CODE

1 ?sample
2
3

There are also a plenty of resources and examples online for most R functions.

You can also create custom functions.

R CODE  START OVER  RUN CODE

1 # your function definition may look like ...

2 your_function <- function(arg1, arg2) {
3 # some task using the inputs
4 # the variable names must match the names
5 # defined in the function definition
6 output <- arg1 + arg2
7 # return() explicitly tells R the object your function
8 # the point at which point the function stops and
9 # returns an output
10 return(output)
11 }
12 # you can then call the function as ...
13 your_function(5, 5)

[1] 10

Exercise 2
Create a function named diff_in_absolute_diff() that takes 4 numbers – say, w , x , y , and z — and computes

| w − x | − |y − z |

R CODE  START OVER  HINTS  RUN CODE

1 diff_in_absolute_diff <- function(w, x, y, z) {

2 out <- abs(w - x) - abs(y - z)
3 return(out)
4 }
5 diff_in_absolute_diff(20,10,15,10)
6

[1] 5

Loops and vectorized calls

To loop through each element in a vector, you may use a “for loop” in R:

x <- c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)

y <- c(5, 10, 15, 20, 25)
z <- numeric(5)
for (i in c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)) {
z[i] <- x[i] + y[i]
}
z

## [1] 15 30 45 60 75

Many R functions automatically broadcast the operation to each element resulting in a vector of same size.

x + y

## [1] 15 30 45 60 75

Exercise 3

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25/01/2024, 12:30 Week 1: Review and Introduction to Data Analysis

Use diff_in_absolute_diff() from Exercise 2 in a loop to compute

| w − x | − |y − z |
for each element of the following vectors.

w <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
x <- c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
y <- c(5, 10, 15, 20, 25)
z <- c(50, 40, 30, 20, 10)

The vectors w , x , y , z , and the function diff_in_absolute_diff() have been predefined for your use in the
following chunk. Use the for-loop to compute and save the resulting values to the vector u .

R CODE  START OVER  HINTS  RUN CODE

1 # use a loop
2 u <- numeric(5)
3 for (i in 1:5) {
4 u[i] <- diff_in_absolute_diff(w[i], x[i], y[i], z[i])
5 }
6 u

[1] -36 -12 12 36 30

In the code chunk below, the vectors are directly used as inputs. Compare the results from the loop
version above.

R CODE  START OVER  RUN CODE

1 # diff_in_absolute_diff() is a vectorized
2 u <- diff_in_absolute_diff(w, x, y, z)
3 u

[1] -36 -12 12 36 30

NEXT TOPIC

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