Add a reactive expression

A reactive expression is an R expression that uses widget input and returns a value. The reactive expression will update this value whenever the original widget changes. Reactive expressions are lazy and cached.

In this exercise, you will encapsulate a repeated computation as a reactive expression.

This exercise is part of the course

Building Web Applications with Shiny in R

View Course

Exercise instructions

Add a reactive expression called rval_bmi to calculate BMI.
Use this reactive expression to replace BMI calculations in both outputs.

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

ui <- fluidPage(
  titlePanel('BMI Calculator'),
  sidebarLayout(
    sidebarPanel(
      numericInput('height', 'Enter your height in meters', 1.5, 1, 2),
      numericInput('weight', 'Enter your weight in Kilograms', 60, 45, 120)
    ),
    mainPanel(
      textOutput("bmi"),
      textOutput("bmi_range")
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  # CODE BELOW: Add a reactive expression rval_bmi to calculate BMI
  
  
  
  output$bmi <- renderText({
    # MODIFY CODE BELOW: Replace right-hand-side with reactive expression
    bmi <- input$weight/(input$height^2)
    paste("Your BMI is", round(bmi, 1))
  })
  output$bmi_range <- renderText({
    # MODIFY CODE BELOW: Replace right-hand-side with reactive expression
    bmi <- input$weight/(input$height^2)
    bmi_status <- cut(bmi, 
      breaks = c(0, 18.5, 24.9, 29.9, 40),
      labels = c('underweight', 'healthy', 'overweight', 'obese')
    )
    paste("You are", bmi_status)
  })
}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

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