The Book of R

11WRITING FUNCTIONS

Defining a function allows you to reuse a chunk of code without endlessly copying and pasting. It also allows other users to use your functions to carry out the same computations on their own data or objects. In this chapter, you’ll learn about writing your own R functions. You’ll learn how to define and use arguments, how to return output from a function, and how to specialize your functions in other ways.

11.1 The function Command

To define a function, use the function command and assign the results to an object name. Once you’ve done this, you can call the function using that object name just like any other built-in or contributed ...