R For Dummies

Chapter 4

Getting Started with Arithmetic

In This Chapter

Using R as a fancy calculator

Constructing and working with vectors

Vectorizing your calculations

Statistics isn’t called applied mathematics just for the fun of it. Every statistical analysis involves a lot of calculations, and calculation is what R is designed for — the work that it does best.

R goes far beyond employing the classic arithmetic operators. It also contains sets of operators and functions that work on complete vectors at the same time. If you’ve read Chapter 3, you’ve gotten a first glimpse into the power of vectorized functions. In this chapter, you discover the full power of vectorization, using it to speed up calculations and perform complex tasks with very little code.

We can’t possibly cover all of R’s mathematical functions in one chapter — or even in one book — so we encourage you to browse the Help files and other sources when you’re done with this chapter. You can find search tips and a list of interesting sources in Chapter 11.

Working with Numbers, Infinity, and Missing Values

In many low-level computer ...