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− | ==Functions in '''R'''==
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− | In this lab the function objects were already introduced, and some basic
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− | functions were applied. That was the case of the ''c()'' function
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− | which concatenates several elements in a vector, the ''matrix()''
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− | function which transforms a vector in a matrix, the ''which()''
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− | function which reports the elements where a given logical prove is TRUE,
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− | etc..
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− | Functions in '''R''' are very easy to apply because the programming
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− | is the same in all cases. Applying a function is as easy as to type the
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− | name of the function immediately followed (without space) by circular
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− | brackets. Inside the circular brackets, the arguments of the function
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− | are specified. A imaginary function named ''ResourcesAssessment()''
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− | could be applied by using the following code:
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− | <<eval=FALSE>>=
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− | ResourcesAssessment(Arg_1, Arg_2, ..., Arg_i, ..., Arg_n)
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− | @
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− | where ''Arg_i'' are the n arguments which defineing the function
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− | options.
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− |
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− | Not all arguments must be specified to apply the function, as some
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− | arguments have default settings that are applied in the case that the
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− | argument is not specified. Some arguments requires a single element to
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− | be entered, but also vectors or even matrices, dataframes or other type
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− | of objects can be arguments in a function, as shown above. Most of the
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− | cases the argument must be entered by using its name. For instance, the
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− | argument ''add=TRUE'' controls in some graphical functions whether the
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− | current plot is produced in a new chart or incorporated to the previous one.
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− |
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− | A question that may arise at this point is the list of the available
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− | functions in '''R''', or even the total number of it. It is a
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− | difficult question to answer, as the number of functions is continuously
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− | increasing. There is a set of functions included with the basic
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− | '''R''' software (core), but the number of functions can be increased
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− | by installing new packages. New packages can be downloaded from the URL
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− | address of '''R''', or being installed directly from '''RStudio'''
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− | in the "Packages" tab of the Graphical output window. Even though it is
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− | enough with installing once the new packages, packages not included in
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− | the core must be activated each time to be used in a new '''R'''
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− | session by using the ''library()'' function.
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− | Even though the number of available functions is huge, should we be
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− | interested in create a new one. It can be easily done in '''R''' but
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− | it is far of the scope of this introductory lab.
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