The differences between the R list and vector data types.docVIP

The differences between the R list and vector data types 　　Introduction 　　Since programming language has been widely used in every field in analysing the data and statistical researches across the world， a powerful and convenient software has been strongly needed to keep up with the advanced techniques and easy to manipulate at the same time（Lopez-de-Lacalle，2006）. The high level language called R has been created to provide a flexible programming environment for data analysis and statistical researches （Crawley， 2013）. Based on two existing languages， which are‘S’by Becker， Chambers and Wilks and‘Scheme’by Sussman（Crawley， 2013）.The R programming environment appears to be similar to S language while the grammatical statements are derived from Scheme（Crawley，2013）. 　　It has been suggested by Crawley （2013） that large number of things could be achieved in R environment. Everything achieved in R is an object which is included in a class （Lopez-de-Lacalle， 2006）. Data frames， matrices and list and so on are available objects in R language（Gaedener， 2012）， and further method could be applied based on the attribute of these objects （Lopez-de-Lacalle， 2006）. Data items could be shown in two forms， which are numbers and text values （Gaedener， 2012）. The structures and forms of these data items could also be expressed differently （Gaedener， 2012）. In R language environment， all kinds of forms or structures of data could be recognised and put into specific use （Gaedener， 2012）. As is suggested by Gaedener （2012）， vector， matrix， data frame and list are presented to be different structures of data items （Fig.1）. 　　This paper mainly focused on two different forms of data items， which are vector and list. Definitions of vector and list would be described separately and examples are used to support the explanations. List and vector form are then compared to show a better understanding and might be helpful to put into further use. 　　Fig.1 Data types in R 　　Vector in R 　　Ve