Basic R Concepts
What is R?
Answer: R is a programming language and software environment for statistical computing and
graphics.
What are the basic data types in R?
Answer: The basic data types in R are Numeric, Character, Logical, Integer, and Complex.
What is a variable in R?
Answer: A variable is a container for storing data values. Variables are assigned using the <-
operator.
How do you assign values to variables in R?
Answer: You can assign values using the <- operator. For example, x <- 5.
What is the difference between == and = in R?
Answer: == is used for comparison, while = is used for assignment.
Vectors and Arrays
What is a vector in R?
Answer: A vector is a one-dimensional collection of elements of the same type.
How do you create a vector in R?
Answer: You can create a vector using the c() function. Example: v <- c(1, 2, 3).
What is the difference between c() and vector()?
Answer: c() combines elements into a vector, while vector() initializes an empty vector of a
specified type.
What is an array in R?
Answer: An array is a multi-dimensional data structure, where all elements must be of the same
type.
How do you create a 2D array in R?
Answer: You can create a 2D array using the array() function. Example: arr <- array(1:6, dim =
c(2, 3)).
Matrices
What is a matrix in R?
Answer: A matrix is a two-dimensional data structure with rows and columns, where all elements
are of the same type.
How do you create a matrix in R?
Answer: You can create a matrix using the matrix() function. Example: m <- matrix(1:6, nrow = 2,
ncol = 3).
How do you access elements in a matrix?
Answer: Elements in a matrix can be accessed using row and column indices. Example: m[1, 2].
What is the difference between a vector and a matrix in R?
Answer: A vector is one-dimensional, while a matrix is two-dimensional.
Data Frames
What is a data frame in R?
Answer: A data frame is a two-dimensional data structure, like a table, where each column can
hold different types of data.
How do you create a data frame in R?
Answer: You can create a data frame using the data.frame() function. Example: df <-
data.frame(Name = c("John", "Jane"), Age = c(25, 30)).
How do you access columns in a data frame?
Answer: You can access columns by name. Example: df$Age.
How do you add a new column to a data frame?
Answer: You can add a new column by simply assigning it. Example: df$Gender <- c("M", "F").
Lists
What is a list in R?
Answer: A list is an ordered collection of objects that can contain different types of data, such as
vectors, matrices, and other lists.
How do you create a list in R?
Answer: You can create a list using the list() function. Example: my_list <- list(name = "John",
age = 25).
How do you access elements in a list?
Answer: You can access list elements using the $ operator or double square brackets [[ ]].
Example: my_list$name.
How do you add an element to a list?
Answer: You can add elements to a list by assigning them directly. Example: my_list$city <-
"New York".
Functions
What is a function in R?
Answer: A function is a block of reusable code that performs a specific task and can take
arguments and return values.
How do you define a function in R?
Answer: You define a function using the function() keyword. Example:
my_func <- function(a, b) {
return(a + b)
}
What is the purpose of the return() function?
Answer: The return() function is used to return a value from a function.
How do you pass arguments to a function?
Answer: You pass arguments inside the function call. Example: my_func(3, 5).
Control Structures
What are control structures in R?
Answer: Control structures such as if, else, for, while, and repeat are used to control the flow of
execution in R.
How do you write an if statement in R?
Answer: An if statement is written as follows:
if (x > 5) {
print("Greater than 5")
}
How do you write an else statement in R?
Answer: An else statement can be written after an if statement:
if (x > 5) {
print("Greater than 5")
} else {
print("Less than or equal to 5")
}
What is a for loop in R?
Answer: A for loop is used to iterate over a sequence of elements. Example:
for (i in 1:5) {
print(i)
}
What is a while loop in R?
Answer: A while loop runs as long as a specified condition is true. Example:
while (x < 10) {
x <- x + 1
}
Apply Family Functions
What is the apply() function in R?
Answer: apply() is used to apply a function to the rows or columns of a matrix or array. Example:
apply(m, 1, sum) # Applies sum function to rows of matrix m
What is the difference between lapply() and sapply()?
Answer: lapply() returns a list, while sapply() tries to simplify the result to an array or matrix if
possible.
What does vapply() do in R?
Answer: vapply() is similar to sapply(), but it requires you to specify the type of the return value
to ensure consistency.
How does the mapply() function work in R?
Answer: mapply() applies a function to multiple arguments in parallel, typically used for
vectorized operations.
Data Manipulation with dplyr
What is the dplyr package in R?
Answer: dplyr is a package for data manipulation that provides a set of functions to efficiently
manipulate data frames.
How do you filter data using dplyr?
Answer: You can filter data using the filter() function. Example:
df_filtered <- filter(df, Age > 25)
How do you arrange data using dplyr?
Answer: You can arrange data using the arrange() function. Example:
df_arranged <- arrange(df, Age)
How do you group data in dplyr?
Answer: You can group data using the group_by() function. Example:
df_grouped <- group_by(df, Gender)
How do you summarize data using dplyr?
Answer: You can summarize data using the summarise() function. Example:
df_summary <- summarise(df, avg_age = mean(Age))
Data Visualization
What is ggplot2 in R?
Answer: ggplot2 is a popular R package for data visualization, providing a powerful and flexible
grammar of graphics.
How do you create a scatter plot in R?
Answer: You can create a scatter plot using the plot() function or ggplot2. Example with ggplot2:
ggplot(data, aes(x = Age, y = Height)) + geom_point()
What is a histogram in R?
Answer: A histogram is a graphical representation of the distribution of numerical data. Example:
hist(df$Age)
How do you create a bar plot in R?
Answer: You can create a bar plot using the barplot() function or ggplot2. Example with ggplot2:
ggplot(data, aes(x = Gender)) + geom_bar()
What is the difference between plot() and ggplot()?
Answer: plot() is a base R function for simple plots, while ggplot() is part of the ggplot2 package,
which is more flexible and powerful for complex visualizations.
Advanced R Topics
What is object-oriented programming (OOP) in R?
Answer: OOP in R is a programming style that organizes code into objects (data) and methods
(functions). R supports both S3 and S4 classes.
What are S3 and S4 classes in R?
Answer: S3
is a simpler, informal object-oriented system, while S4 is a more formal
system for defining classes and methods.
How do you create an S3 class in R?
Answer: You can create an S3 class using the class() function. Example:
my_object <- list(a = 1, b = 2)
class(my_object) <- "MyClass"
How do you create an S4 class in R?
Answer: You can create an S4 class using the setClass() function. Example:
setClass("Person", slots = c(name = "character", age = "numeric"))
What are regular expressions in R?
Answer: Regular expressions are patterns used to match strings in text. Functions like grep(),
gsub(), and regexpr() are used for pattern matching.
