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Basic data types in R

R works with numerous data types. Some of the most basic types to get started are:

  • Decimal values like 4.5 are called numerics.
  • Whole numbers like 4 are called integers. Integers are also numerics.
  • Boolean values (TRUE or FALSE) are called logical.
  • Text (or string) values are called characters.

Note how the quotation marks in the editor indicate that "some text" is a string.

This is a part of the course

“Introduction to R”

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Exercise instructions

Change the value of the:

  • my_numeric variable to 42.
  • my_character variable to "universe". Note that the quotation marks indicate that "universe" is a character.
  • my_logical variable to FALSE.

Note that R is case sensitive!

Hands-on interactive exercise

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

# Change my_numeric to be 42
my_numeric <- 42.5

# Change my_character to be "universe"
my_character <- "some text"

# Change my_logical to be FALSE
my_logical <- TRUE
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