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Course

Introduction to Writing Functions in R

Beginner

4.6+

Updated 05/2025

Take your R skills up a notch by learning to write efficient, reusable functions.

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RProgramming4 hours14 videos52 Exercises4,350 XP47,632Statement of Accomplishment

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Course Description

Being able to write your own functions makes your analyses more readable, with fewer errors, and more reusable from project to project. Function writing will increase your productivity more than any other skill! In this course you'll learn the basics of function writing, focusing on the arguments going into the function and the return values. You'll be writing useful data science functions, and using real-world data on Wyoming tourism, stock price/earnings ratios, and grain yields.

Prerequisites

Introduction to the Tidyverse Intermediate R

1

How to Write a Function

Why you should use functions

Calling functions

The benefits of writing functions

Converting scripts into functions

Converting a script to a function

Your first function: tossing a coin

Inputs to functions

Multiple inputs to functions

Y kant I reed ur code?

Data or detail?

Renaming GLM

2

All About Arguments

Default arguments

Numeric defaults

Logical defaults

NULL defaults

Categorical defaults

Passing arguments between functions

Harmonic mean

Dealing with missing values

Passing arguments with ...

Checking arguments

Throwing errors with bad arguments

Custom error logic

Fixing function arguments

3

Return Values and Scope

Returning values from functions

Returning early

Returning invisibly

Returning multiple values from functions

Returning many things

Returning metadata

Environments

Creating and exploring environments

Do variables exist?

Scope and precedence

Can a function find its variables?

Can you access variables from inside functions?

Variable precedence 1

Variable precedence 2

4

Case Study on Grain Yields

Grain yields and unit conversion

Converting areas to metric 1

Converting areas to metric 2

Converting yields to metric

Applying the unit conversion

Visualizing grain yields

Plotting yields over time

A nation divided

Plotting yields over time by region

Modeling grain yields

Running a model

Making yield predictions

Do it all over again

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*4.6

from 152 reviews

74%

23%

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Most recent
Top reviews

Hugo

2 days

Carolina Judith

2 days

Este curso es bastante útil y retador. Lo recomiendo si deseas aprender lógica de programación en funciones en R.

Kris

5 days

Jacob

6 days

yitong

6 days

Jessica

3 days

Hugo

"Este curso es bastante útil y retador. Lo recomiendo si deseas aprender lógica de programación en funciones en R."

Carolina Judith

Kris

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