Data types in R
Everything in R programming language is an object. Hence, when we talk about data
types in R we refer to the simplest data objects we can handle, that are also known as R
atomic data types.
What are atomic data types in R?
Check data type in R
Numeric data types
▪ 3.1 Double or real data type
▪ 3.2 Integer data type
Logical data type
Complex data type
String or character data type
Raw data type in R
Data types coercion in R
What are atomic data types in R?
Atomic data types are the object types which you can create (atomic) vectors with them.
To clarify, the most common data types in R are the ones listed in the following list:
o Numeric : integer and double (real).
o Character.
o Logical.
o Complex.
o Raw.
Thus, you can check if any data object is atomic with the [Link] function. Note that
this function checks for the data type of atomic vectors.
[Link](3) # TRUE
[Link]("R CODER") # TRUE
In the following sections we will show how to check the data type of an object in R and
explanations about each data type.
Check data type in R
There are several functions that can show you the data type of an R object, such
as typeof , mode , [Link] , class and str .
# R internal type or storage mode of any object
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typeof(1) # "double"
# Object class
class(2) # "numeric"
# Set or get the storage mode or type of an R object
# This classification is related to the S language
[Link](3) # "double"
mode(4) # "numeric"
# Object structure
str(5) # num 5
However, the main use of some of them is not to just check the data type of an R object.
For instance, the class of an R object can be different from the data type (which is very
useful when creating S3 classes) and the str function is designed to show the full
structure of an object. If you want to print the R data type, we recommend
using the typeof function.
x <- 1
class(x) # "numeric"
class(x) <- "My_class"
class(x) # "My_class"
typeof(x) # "double"
To summarize, the following table shows the differences of the possible outputs when
applying typeof , [Link] and mode functions.
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typeof [Link] mode
logical logical logical
integer numeric integer
double numeric double
complex complex complex
character character character
raw raw raw
There are other functions that allow you to check if some object belongs to some data
type, returning TRUE or FALSE . As a rule, these functions start with is. followed
by the data type. We will review all of them in the following sections.
Numeric data types
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The numeric data type in R is composed by double (real) and integer data types. You can
check if an object is numeric with the mode function or if the [Link] function
returns TRUE .
mode(55) # "numeric"
[Link](3) # TRUE
Double or real data type
The double data type in R is the representation of a double-precision numeric object.
Note that, by default, all numbers are double in R and that Inf , -Inf , NaN , the
scientific and hexadecimal notation of numbers are also doubles.
typeof(2) # "double"
# Infinite
typeof(Inf) # "double"
typeof(-Inf) # "double"
# Not a number
typeof(NaN) # "double"
# Scientific
typeof(3.12e3) # "double"
# Hexadecimal
typeof(0xbade) # "double"
If you want to check if an object is a double, you can use the [Link] function.
[Link](2) # TRUE
[Link](2.8) # TRUE
Integer data type
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The integer data type can be created adding an L to a number. This data type is useful
if you want to pass some R object to a C or FORTRAN function that expects an integer
value, so this data type it is not generally needed. You can check the data type with
the [Link] function.
y <- 2L
typeof(y) # "integer"
[Link](3) # FALSE
[Link](3L) # TRUE
Logical data type
The boolean or logical data type is composed by TRUE , FALSE and NA values.
t <- TRUE
f <- FALSE
n <- NA
typeof(t) # "logical"
typeof(f) # "logical"
typeof(n) # "logical"
In addition, the function that prints whether an object is logical or not is [Link] .
[Link](T) # TRUE
[Link](TRUE) # TRUE
Note that you can use T and F instead of TRUE or FALSE . However, the first
is not recommended because you could override the value of T or F but
not TRUE or FALSE , as shown in the following block of code.
F # FALSE
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a <- T
# You can name a variable with T or F
F <- a
F # TRUE
# You can't name a variable with TRUE or FALSE
a <- TRUE
FALSE <- a # Error
Complex data type
The complex data type is an object that includes an imaginary number (i). As imaginary
numbers are not generally used in statistics, this data type is not very common. The
function to check the data type is [Link] .
1 + 3i
typeof(1 + 3i) # "complex"
[Link](1 + 3i) # TRUE
String or character data type
Character strings are symbols, letters, words or phases inside double or single quotation
marks. With this in mind, you can verify that some object is of type character with
the [Link] function.
character <- "a"
typeof(character) # "character"
[Link](character) # TRUE
Note that using single or double quotations marks is equivalent.
typeof('R CODER') # "character"
typeof("R CODER") # "character"
It is worth to mention that the nchar function counts the number of characters inside a
string, even the empty spaces.
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nchar("A string") # 8
Raw data type in R
The raw data type holds raw bytes, so it is a very unusual data type. For instance, you
could transform a character object or a integer numeric value to a raw object with
the charToRaw and intToBits functions, respectively.
a <- charToRaw("R CODER")
a # 52 20 43 4f 44 45 52
typeof(a) # "raw"
b <- intToBits(3L)
typeof(b) # "raw"
As with the other data types, the function to verify the data type in this case is
the [Link] function.
[Link](b) # TRUE
Date and Time data type in R
A calendar date in R can be represented by using function [Link](). The
Date object has class of Date, for example,
Note that format() is used to set how date will be displayed. Furthermore,
strptime() function is used to convert a certain character representation of a
date and time into another representation.
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Data types coercion in R
You can coerce data types in R with the functions starting with as. , summarized in the
following table:
Function Coerced data type
[Link] Numeric
[Link] Integer
[Link] Double
[Link] Character
[Link] Boolean
[Link] Raw
Consider you want to coerce a double to integer, you could do as follows:
a <- 3
typeof(a) # "double"
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a <- [Link](a)
typeof(a) # "integer"
Morever, you could also coerce a logical value to numeric (0 and 1) or a character string:
b <- TRUE
b <- [Link](b)
b#1
c <- FALSE
c <- [Link](c)
c#0
d <- TRUE
d <- [Link](d)
d # "TRUE"
Nevertheless, if you try to coerce two non-compatible data types (like a character string
to numeric) an error will arise:
[Link]("R CODER")
Output
NA
Warning message: NAs introduced by coercion
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