Base R

Problem Statement

This assignment will focus on basic functions of R with an emphasis on working with base R data structures and functional programming patterns.

Required Readings

Please read sections 5.3 through 5.10 in the textbook. Section 5.3 starts here

Learning Objectives and Skill List

• Understand how vector, matrix, and data frame data structures operate in R
• Logical tests and operator functions applied to data structures
• Use functions and apply() to iterate over rows of a matrix
• Use functional programming concepts to generalize data summarizatoin operations
• Bonus: learn how to appropriately handle missing values

Instructions

Accept the github classroom link posted on Blackboard for Assignment Base R.

The project is laid out as such:

main.R
test_main.R
report.Rmd
reference_report.html

Each step of the assignment is explained in the R markdown file, report.Rmd. There you will find a list of tasks to explicity implement functions in your empty main.R script. The main.R script contains stubs of each function you’ll need to implement, explaining what each function should do, the parameters it expects to receive, and what type of output is expected to be returned. A reference report, reference_report.html is also provided. Assuming you successfully implement all the functions in main.R, your generated report should look identical to the information displayed in reference_report.html. In this way, you can use reference_report.html as a guide to determine if you are correctly implementing your functions.

Here is the suggested workflow for developing and checking your code in this assignment:

1. main.R contains function definitions, including signature descriptions, for a number of functions, but the bodies of those functions are currently blank
2. report.Rmd has code chunks that call functions defined in main.R - you do not need to write anything in the Rmd file (but you may)
3. Your task is to read the function descriptions and the text in the Rmarkdown document and fill in the function bodies to produce the desired behavior in main.R
4. You can test your work by executing individual code chunks in report.Rmd and comparing your output to the example compiled report in the repo
5. In the workflow, you will go back and forth between developing code in main.R and running code chunks in report.Rmd
6. In addition to inspecting your report results, also run testthat:test_file('test_main.R') to ensure they work correctly.
7. When you have developed function bodies for all the functions and executed all the code chunks in the report successfully, you should be able to knit the entire report

Hints

• TBD :)