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sapply with your own function

Like lapply(), sapply() allows you to use self-defined functions and apply them over a vector or a list:

sapply(X, FUN, ...)

Here, FUN can be one of R's built-in functions, but it can also be a function you wrote. This self-written function can be defined before hand, or can be inserted directly as an anonymous function.

This is a part of the course

“Intermediate R”

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Exercise instructions

  • Finish the definition of extremes_avg(): it takes a vector of temperatures and calculates the average of the minimum and maximum temperatures of the vector.
  • Next, use this function inside sapply() to apply it over the vectors inside temp.
  • Use the same function over temp with lapply() and see how the outputs differ.

Hands-on interactive exercise

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

# temp is already defined in the workspace

# Finish function definition of extremes_avg
extremes_avg <- function(___) {
  ( min(x) + ___ ) / 2
}

# Apply extremes_avg() over temp using sapply()


# Apply extremes_avg() over temp using lapply()

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate R

BeginnerSkill Level
4.5+
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Continue your journey to becoming an R ninja by learning about conditional statements, loops, and vector functions.

Whenever you're using a for loop, you may want to revise your code to see whether you can use the lapply function instead. Learn all about this intuitive way of applying a function over a list or a vector, and how to use its variants, sapply and vapply.

Exercise 1: lapplyExercise 2: Use lapply with a built-in R functionExercise 3: Use lapply with your own functionExercise 4: lapply and anonymous functionsExercise 5: Use lapply with additional argumentsExercise 6: Apply functions that return NULLExercise 7: sapplyExercise 8: How to use sapplyExercise 9: sapply with your own function
Exercise 10: sapply with function returning vectorExercise 11: sapply can't simplify, now what?Exercise 12: sapply with functions that return NULLExercise 13: Reverse engineering sapplyExercise 14: vapplyExercise 15: Use vapplyExercise 16: Use vapply (2)Exercise 17: From sapply to vapply

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