Functions continued
In the last exercise we made a start with functions. Also, we looked at how we could get help on using functions.
When getting help on the mean function, you saw that it takes an argument x. X here is just an arbitrary name for the object that you want to find the mean of. Usually this object will be an R vector. We also saw the .... This is called an elipsis and is used to provide a number of optional arguments to the function.
Remember that R can match arguments both by position and by name. Let's say we want to find the mean of a vector called temperature. An example of matching by name is the following:
mean(x = temperature)
An example of matching by position is the following:
mean(temperature)
In this exercise, we have provided you with a vector of 5 numbers. There are the grades that you got during the semester.
This exercise is part of the course
Inferential Statistics
Exercise instructions
- Calculate the mean of the vector
gradesusing matching by position - Calculate the mean of the vector
gradesusing matching by name
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# a grades vector
grades <- c(8.5, 7, 9, 5.5, 6)
# calculate the mean of grades using matching by name
# calculate the mean of grades using matching by position