R Data Types
Data Types
In programming, data type is an important concept.
Variables can store data of different types, and different types can do different things.
In R, variables do not need to be declared with any particular type, and can even change type after they have been set:
Example
my_var <- 30 # my_var is type of numeric
my_var <- "Sally"
# my_var is now of type character (aka string)
Try it Yourself »
R has a variety of data types and object classes. You will learn much more about these as you continue to get to know R.
Basic Data Types
Basic data types in R can be divided into the following types:
numeric- (10.5, 55, 787)integer- (1L, 55L, 100L, where the letter "L" declares this as an integer)complex- (9 + 3i, where "i" is the imaginary part)character(a.k.a. string) - ("k", "R is exciting", "FALSE", "11.5")logical(a.k.a. boolean) - (TRUE or FALSE)
We can use the class() function to check the data type of a variable:
Example
# numeric
x <- 10.5
class(x)
# integer
x <- 1000L
class(x)
#
complex
x <- 9i + 3
class(x)
# character/string
x <- "R is exciting"
class(x)
# logical/boolean
x <- TRUE
class(x)
Try it Yourself »
You will learn much more about the individual data types in the upcoming chapters.
