Scripting Loops In R
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An R programmer can determine the order of processing of commands, via use of the control statements; repeat{}
, while()
, for()
, break
, and next
Answers to the exercises are available here.
Exercise 1
The repeat{}
loop processes a block of code until the condition specified by the break
statement, (that is mandatory within the repeat{}
loop), is met.
The structure of a repeat{}
loop is:
repeat {
commands
if(condition) {
break
}
}
For the first exercise, write a repeat{}
loop that prints all the even numbers from 2
– 10
, via incrementing the variable, “i <- 0
“.
Exercise 2
Using the following variables:
msg <- c("Hello")
i <- 1
Write a repeat{}
loop that breaks off the incrementation of, “i
“, after 5
loops, and prints “msg
” at every increment.
Exercise 3
while()
loop will repeat a group of commands until the condition ceases to apply. The structure of a while()
loop is:
while(condition) {
commands
}
With, i <- 1
, write a while()
loop that prints the odd numbers from 1
through 7
.
Exercise 4
Using the following variables:
msg <- c("Hello")
i <- 1
Write a while()
loop that increments the variable, “i
“, 6
times, and prints “msg
” at every iteration.
Exercise 5
The for()
loop repeats commands until the specified length of the condition is met. The structure of a for()
loop is:
for(condition) { commands }
For example:
for(i in 1:4) {
print("variable"[i])
}
for(i in seq("variable")) {
print(i)
}
for(i in seq_along("variable")) {
print("variable"[i])
}
for(letter in "variable") {
print(letter)
}
For this exercise, write a for()
loop that prints the first four numbers of this sequence: x <- c(7, 4, 3, 8, 9, 25)
Exercise 6
For the next exercise, write a for()
loop that prints all the letters in y <- c("q", "w", "e", "r", "z", "c").
Exercise 7
The break
statement is used within loops to exit from the loop. If the break
statement is within a nested loop, the inner loop is exited, and the outer loop is resumed.
Using i <- 1
, write a while()
loop that prints the variable, “i
“, (that is incremented from 1
– 5
), and uses break
to exit the loop if “i
” equals 3
.
Exercise 8
Write a nested loop, where the outer for()
loop increments “a
” 3
times, and the inner for()
loop increments “b
” 3
times. The break
statement exits the inner for()
loop after 2
incrementations. The nested loop prints the values of variables, “a
” and “b
“.
Exercise 9
The next
statement is used within loops in order to skip the current evaluation, and instead proceed to the next evaluation.
Therefore, write a while()
loop that prints the variable, “i
“, that is incremented from 2
– 5
, and uses the next
statement, to skip the printing of the number 3
.
Exercise 10
Finally, write a for()
loop that uses next to print all values except “3
” in the following variable: i <- 1:5
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