Operators are fun­da­men­tal building blocks of any pro­gram­ming language, and R is no exception. You can use R operators to carry out math­e­mat­i­cal op­er­a­tions, perform arith­metic cal­cu­la­tions, and evaluate com­par­isons and logical ex­pres­sions.

What exactly are R operators?

R operators are special symbols or strings that are used to perform op­er­a­tions on values and variables. These op­er­a­tions can include arith­metic cal­cu­la­tions, com­par­isons, as­sign­ments or other actions. Operators play a critical role in data trans­for­ma­tion, ma­nip­u­la­tion and analysis in R, and are a cor­ner­stone of R pro­gram­ming.

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What different types of R operators are there?

R operators can be divided into different groups according to their func­tion­al­i­ty. The list below isn’t ex­haus­tive, but it does include the main types of operators in R.

  • Arith­metic operators: Used for arith­metic cal­cu­la­tions.
  • Logical operators: Used to compare truth values and evaluate logical ex­pres­sions. They return a truth value.
  • Bitwise operators: Used to ma­nip­u­late bits in a number.
  • As­sign­ment operators: Used to assign values to variables.
  • Com­par­i­son operators: Used to compare values and create logical ex­pres­sions.

Unlike with many other pro­gram­ming languages, there isn’t an explicit increment or decrement operator in R. For example, if you need this func­tion­al­i­ty in for loops or while loops in R, you can do so by adding or sub­tract­ing with 1.

What are arith­metic operators in R?

Arith­metic operators are used to perform math­e­mat­i­cal cal­cu­la­tions such as basic arith­metic.

Operator De­scrip­tion Example Result
+ Addition of numbers 5 + 3 8
- Sub­trac­tion of numbers 10 – 5 5
* Mul­ti­pli­ca­tion of numbers 3* 5 15
/ Division of numbers 10 / 2 5
%% Modulo; returns the rest after a division 10%% 4 2
%/% Integer division 11 %/% 3 3
^ Ex­po­nen­ti­a­tion 2 ^ 3 8

Code examples of arith­metic operators in R

a <- 7 
b <- 3 
addition <- a + b 
subtraction <- a - b 
multiplication <- a * b 
division <- a / b 
modulo <- a %% b 
Integer division <- a %/% b 
exponentiation <- 2^3
R

What are logical operators in R?

Logical operators in R are used to compare truth values and evaluate logical ex­pres­sions. They always return a truth value as a result, which can be either TRUE or FALSE.

Operator De­scrip­tion Example Result
& Logical AND; returns TRUE if both values are TRUE TRUE & FALSE FALSE
` ` Pipe operator in R for logical OR; returns TRUE if one of the two values is TRUE `TRUE
! Logical NOT; inverted truth value !TRUE FALSE

Code examples of logical operators in R

x <- TRUE 
y <- FALSE 
 
and_operator <- x & y 
or_operator <- x | y 
not_operator <- !x
R

What are Bitwise operators?

Bitwise operators let you ma­nip­u­late bits in a number. To un­der­stand how these operators work, you need in-depth knowledge of the binary system, the number system for base 2.

Operator De­scrip­tion Example Result
bitwAnd Bitwise AND bitwAnd(5,3) 1
bitwOr Bitwise OR bitwOr(5,3) 7
bitwXor Bitwise XOR (exclusive order) bitwXor(5,3) 6
bitwNot Bitwise NOT bitwNot(5) -6
bitwShiftL Bitwise left shift -> Bitshift to the left by the number of bits specified in the second parameter bitwShiftL(5, 1) 10
bitwShiftR Bitwise right shift -> Bitshift to the right by the number of bits specified in the first parameter bitwShiftR(5, 1) 2

Code examples of Bitwise operators in R

a <- 5 
b <- 3 
bitwise_and <- bitwAnd(a, b) 
bitwise_or <- bitwOr(a, b) 
bitwise_xor <- bitwXor(a, b) 
bitwise_not <- bitwNot(a) 
Slide left <- bitwShiftL(a, 1) 
Slide right <- bitwShiftR(a, 1)
R

What are com­par­i­son operators in R?

Com­par­i­son operators are used to compare values. Here you return a Boolean value, i.e., either TRUE or FALSE.

Operator De­scrip­tion Example Result
== Compares two values on sim­i­lar­i­ty 5 == 3 FALSE
!= Compares two values on dif­fer­ences 5 != 3 TRUE
< Compares whether the left value is smaller than the right value 5 < 3 FALSE
> Compares whether the left value is greater than the right 5 &gt; 3 TRUE
<= Compares whether the left value is smaller than or equal to the value on the right 5 <= 3 FALSE
>= Compares whether the left value is greater than or equal to the value on the right 5 &gt;= 3 TRUE

Code examples of com­par­i­son operators in R

x <- 5 
y <- 3 
equal <- x == y 
not_equal <- x != y 
less_than <- x < y 
more_than <- x > y 
less_than_or_equal_to <- x <= y 
more_than_or_equal_to <- x >= y
R

What are as­sign­ment operators in R?

As­sign­ment operators are used to assign specific values to variables. They are an essential part of any pro­gram­ming language. There are several as­sign­ment operators in R, but most of the time the <- operator is used.

Operator De­scrip­tion Example Result
= Top-level as­sign­ment operator used primarily in functions to assign arguments matrix(1, nrow = 2) After execution, there is no variable called nrow.
<- Arrow as­sign­ment operator used to assign variables simple numeric values or complex values such as R lists and create new objects matrix(1, nrow <- 2) After execution, there is a variable called nrow.
<<- As­sign­ment operator in functions that searches the en­vi­ron­ment for an existing variable de­f­i­n­i­tion or otherwise creates a new variable a <<- 1 If a already exists, a now has a value of 1, otherwise a is recreated with a value of 1.

Code examples of as­sign­ment operators in R

matrix(1, nrow=2) 
b <- 3 
test <- function() { 
    a <<- 1 
}
R
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