Vectors are the most basic data structure in R. Here’s how to create them.

Method 1: Using c() Function

The most common way to create vectors:

# Numeric vector
numbers <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
print(numbers)  # 1 2 3 4 5

# Character vector
names <- c("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie")
print(names)

# Logical vector
flags <- c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)
print(flags)

Method 2: Using Colon Operator

Create sequences of integers:

# 1 to 10
nums <- 1:10
print(nums)  # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

# 5 to 1 (descending)
desc <- 5:1
print(desc)  # 5 4 3 2 1

Method 3: Using seq() Function

Create sequences with more control:

# Specify start, end, and increment
by_two <- seq(0, 10, by = 2)
print(by_two)  # 0 2 4 6 8 10

# Specify length
five_nums <- seq(0, 1, length.out = 5)
print(five_nums)  # 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

Method 4: Using rep() Function

Create vectors with repeated values:

# Repeat a value
zeros <- rep(0, 5)
print(zeros)  # 0 0 0 0 0

# Repeat a vector
pattern <- rep(c(1, 2), 3)
print(pattern)  # 1 2 1 2 1 2

# Repeat each element
each <- rep(c(1, 2, 3), each = 2)
print(each)  # 1 1 2 2 3 3

Method 5: Using vector() Function

Create an empty vector of a specific type:

# Numeric vector of length 5
nums <- vector("numeric", 5)
print(nums)  # 0 0 0 0 0

# Character vector
chars <- vector("character", 3)
print(chars)  # "" "" ""

# Logical vector
flags <- vector("logical", 4)
print(flags)  # FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

Combining Vectors

v1 <- c(1, 2, 3)
v2 <- c(4, 5, 6)

# Concatenate
combined <- c(v1, v2)
print(combined)  # 1 2 3 4 5 6

Named Vectors

Create vectors with named elements:

ages <- c(Alice = 25, Bob = 30, Charlie = 35)
print(ages)
print(ages["Alice"])  # 25

# Or add names later
scores <- c(85, 90, 78)
names(scores) <- c("Math", "Science", "English")
print(scores)

Checking Vector Properties

nums <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

length(nums)     # 5
typeof(nums)     # "double"
is.vector(nums)  # TRUE

Summary

Use c() for creating vectors from values
Use : or seq() for numeric sequences
Use rep() for repeated values
Use vector() for empty vectors of specific length
Use names() to add or access element names

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