R Numbers

Numbers

There are three number types in R:

numeric
integer
complex

Variables of number types are created when you assign a value to them:

Example

x <- 10.5   # numeric
y <- 10L    # integer
z <- 1i     # complex

Numeric

A numeric data type is the most common type in R, and contains any number with or without a decimal, like: 10.5, 55, 787:

Example

x <- 10.5
y <- 55

# Print values of x and y
x
y

# Print the class name of x and y
class(x)
class(y)

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Integer

Integers are numeric data without decimals. This is used when you are certain that you will never create a variable that should contain decimals. To create an integer variable, you must use the letter L after the integer value:

Example

x <- 1000L
y <- 55L

# Print values of x and y
x
y

# Print the class name of x and y
class(x)
class(y)

Try it Yourself »

Complex

A complex number is written with an "i" as the imaginary part:

Example

x <- 3+5i
y <- 5i

# Print values of x and y
x
y

# Print the class name of x and y
class(x)
class(y)

Try it Yourself »

Type Conversion

You can convert from one type to another with the following functions:

as.numeric()
as.integer()
as.complex()

Example

x <- 1L # integer
y <- 2 # numeric

# convert from integer to numeric:
a <- as.numeric(x)

# convert from numeric to integer:
b <- as.integer(y)

# print values of x and y
x
y

# print the class name of a and b
class(a)
class(b)

Try it Yourself »

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