Operators in R

Operators in R are symbols that perform specific operations on one or more operands. R has a wide range of operators to perform tasks ranging from arithmetic to logical comparisons to member selection.

In this tutorial, we will cover:

Arithmetic Operators
Relational Operators
Logical Operators
Assignment Operators
Miscellaneous Operators

1. Arithmetic Operators

These operators are used to perform arithmetic calculations.

Operator	Description	Example	Result
`+`	Addition	`3 + 4`	`7`
`-`	Subtraction	`7 - 4`	`3`
`*`	Multiplication	`3 * 4`	`12`
`/`	Division	`8 / 2`	`4`
`%%`	Modulus	`5 %% 3`	`2`
`%/%`	Integer Division	`5 %/% 3`	`1`
`^`	Exponentiation	`3^2`	`9`

2. Relational Operators

These operators are used to compare two values.

Operator	Description	Example	Result
`==`	Equal to	`5 == 3`	`FALSE`
`!=`	Not equal to	`5 != 3`	`TRUE`
`>`	Greater than	`5 > 3`	`TRUE`
`<`	Less than	`5 < 3`	`FALSE`
`>=`	Greater than or equal to	`5 >= 5`	`TRUE`
`<=`	Less than or equal to	`5 <= 7`	`TRUE`

3. Logical Operators

Used to perform logical operations.

Operator	Description	Example	Result
`&`	Element-wise AND	`c(TRUE, FALSE) & c(TRUE, TRUE)`	`c(TRUE, FALSE)`
`	`	Element-wise OR	`c(TRUE, FALSE) \| c(FALSE, TRUE)`
`!`	NOT	`!c(TRUE, FALSE)`	`c(FALSE, TRUE)`
`&&`	And (returns single `TRUE` or `FALSE`)	`TRUE && FALSE`	`FALSE`
`\|\|`	Or (returns single `TRUE` or `FALSE`)	`TRUE \|\| FALSE`	`TRUE`

4. Assignment Operators

Used to assign values.

Operator	Description	Example
`<-`	Assigns value on the right to the left	`x <- 5`
`->`	Assigns value on the left to the right	`5 -> x`
`=`	Assigns value (mostly used in function arguments)	`f(x = 5)`

5. Miscellaneous Operators

Operator	Description	Example	Result
`:`	Creates a sequence	`3:6`	`3 4 5 6`
`%in%`	Checks if left is a member of right	`3 %in% c(1, 2, 3, 4)`	`TRUE`

Conclusion

Operators in R are powerful and allow for flexible manipulation and evaluation of data. Understanding them is crucial as they form the foundation for almost every operation and evaluation in R programming.

Arithmetic operators in R programming:

Arithmetic operators perform basic mathematical operations.

# Example
a <- 5
b <- 3

addition_result <- a + b
subtraction_result <- a - b
multiplication_result <- a * b
division_result <- a / b

Comparison operators in R:

Comparison operators compare values and return logical results.

# Example
x <- 10
y <- 15

greater_than <- x > y
less_than_equal <- x <= y
not_equal <- x != y

Logical operators in R:

Logical operators perform logical operations on Boolean values.

# Example
p <- TRUE
q <- FALSE

and_result <- p & q
or_result <- p | q
not_result <- !p

Assignment operators in R:

Assignment operators assign values to variables.

# Example
x <- 10
y <<- 20  # Assign in global environment
z <- c(1, 2, 3)

Bitwise operators in R:
- Bitwise operators perform operations on binary representations of integers.
```
# Example
a <- 5
b <- 3

bitwise_and <- a & b
bitwise_or <- a | b
bitwise_xor <- xor(a, b)
```
Special operators in R (e.g., %in%, %*%):
- Special operators serve specific purposes, like checking membership or performing matrix multiplication.
```
# Example
vector_check <- 3 %in% c(1, 2, 3, 4)
matrix_multiply <- matrix(1:4, nrow = 2) %*% matrix(1:4, ncol = 2)
```
Vectorized operations and operators in R:
- R supports vectorized operations, allowing operations on entire vectors.
```
# Example
vector_a <- c(1, 2, 3)
vector_b <- c(4, 5, 6)

elementwise_sum <- vector_a + vector_b
```
Operator precedence in R:
- Operator precedence determines the order in which operators are evaluated.
```
# Example
result <- 2 + 3 * 4
```

Overloading operators in R programming:

Operator overloading allows you to define custom behavior for operators with your own classes.

# Example (S3 method for overloading +)
setMethod("+", signature = c("MyClass", "MyClass"), function(e1, e2) {
  # Custom addition logic
})