Programming Example

Naming a vector in R | Question 2

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💻 Practical Program

📘 Step by Step Learning

If you want to become a good statistician, you have to become lazy. (If you are already lazy, chances are high you are one of those exceptional, natural-born statistical talents.)

In the previous exercises you probably experienced that it is boring and frustrating to type and retype information such as the days of the week. However, when you look at it from a higher perspective, there is a more efficient way to do this, namely, to assign the days of the week vector to a variable!

Just like you did with your poker and roulette returns, you can also create a variable that contains the days of the week. This way you can use and re-use it.

A variable days_vector that contains the days of the week has already been created for you.
Use days_vector to set the names of poker_vector and roulette_vector.

Program Code

# Poker winnings from Monday to Friday
poker_vector <- c(140, -50, 20, -120, 240)

# Roulette winnings from Monday to Friday
roulette_vector <- c(-24, -50, 100, -350, 10)

# The variable days_vector
days_vector <- c("Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday")

# Assign the names of the day to roulette_vector and poker_vector
names(poker_vector) <-  days_vector

# see poker_vector result
poker_vector

# see roulette_vector result
roulette_vector

Output

> # Poker winnings from Monday to Friday
> poker_vector <- c(140, -50, 20, -120, 240)
> 
> # Roulette winnings from Monday to Friday
> roulette_vector <- c(-24, -50, 100, -350, 10)
> 
> # The variable days_vector
> days_vector <- c("Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday")
> 
> # Assign the names of the day to roulette_vector and poker_vector
> names(poker_vector) <-  days_vector
> 
> # see poker_vector result
> poker_vector
   Monday   Tuesday Wednesday  Thursday    Friday 
      140       -50        20      -120       240 
> 
> # see roulette_vector result
> roulette_vector 
[1]  -24  -50  100 -350   10

Explanation

A variable days_vector that contains the days of the week has already been created for you.
Use days_vector to set the names of poker_vector and roulette_vector.

How to learn from this program

First read the algorithm, then study the program code line by line. After that, compare the code with the output and finally go through the explanation. This approach helps learners understand both the logic and the implementation properly.

Practice suggestion

After understanding this example, try to rewrite the same program without looking at the code. Then change some values or logic and run it again. This helps improve confidence and keeps learners engaged on the page for longer.