A vector is a series of data elements of the same basic type. The members in the vector are known as a component.
The R object that contains elements of different types such as numbers, strings, vectors, or another list inside it, is known as List.
A two-dimensional data structure used to bind the vectors from the same length, known as the matrix. The matrix contains the same types of elements.
A Data frame is a generic form of a matrix. It is a combination of lists and matrices. In the Data frame, different data columns contain different data types.
In R, vector, list, matrix, and data frame are different types of data structures, each with its own characteristics and use cases. Here’s a brief differentiation between them:
Vector:
A vector is a one-dimensional array that can hold elements of the same data type.
All elements in a vector must be of the same data type, such as numeric, character, or logical.
Examples: c(1, 2, 3) or c(“a”, “b”, “c”).
List:
A list is a versatile data structure that can store elements of different data types.
Elements in a list can be vectors, matrices, other lists, or even functions.
Lists are created using the list() function.
Examples: list(1, “a”, c(2, 3)).
Matrix:
A matrix is a two-dimensional array that can hold elements of the same data type.
It is created using the matrix() function and can be considered a special case of a vector with dimensions.
All columns in a matrix must have the same data type.
Examples: matrix(1:6, nrow = 2, ncol = 3).
Data Frame:
A data frame is a two-dimensional structure that is similar to a matrix but more flexible.
It can store columns of different data types, making it suitable for representing datasets.
Data frames are created using the data.frame() function.
Each column in a data frame can be considered as a vector, and the columns can have different data types.
Examples:
data.frame(
Name = c(“Alice”, “Bob”, “Charlie”),
Age = c(25, 30, 22),
Grade = c(“A”, “B”, “C”)
)
In summary, vectors are one-dimensional arrays, lists are versatile containers for different data types, matrices are two-dimensional arrays of the same data type, and data frames are two-dimensional structures with columns that can have different data types, often used to represent datasets.