m<-matrix(1:12,nrow=3,ncol=4)   # 3 by 4 matrix filled in columnwise
m
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,]    1    4    7   10
## [2,]    2    5    8   11
## [3,]    3    6    9   12
dim(m)                  # dimension of m
## [1] 3 4
nrow(m)                 # number of row in m
## [1] 3
ncol(m)                 # number of column in m
## [1] 4
matrix(1:12,nrow=3,byrow=T)     # by row
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,]    1    2    3    4
## [2,]    5    6    7    8
## [3,]    9   10   11   12
m[2,]                   # select 2nd row
## [1]  2  5  8 11
 m[,3]                  # select 3rd column
## [1] 7 8 9
 m[2,3]                 # select an element
## [1] 8
m[1:2,2:4]              # select submatrix
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    4    7   10
## [2,]    5    8   11
 m[-2,]                 # exclude the second row
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,]    1    4    7   10
## [2,]    3    6    9   12
m1<-matrix(1:8,nrow=2)  # create a 2x4 matrix m1
m2<-matrix(1:6,nrow=3)  # create a 3x2 matrix m2
rbind(m,m1)                 # combine m and m1 row-wise
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,]    1    4    7   10
## [2,]    2    5    8   11
## [3,]    3    6    9   12
## [4,]    1    3    5    7
## [5,]    2    4    6    8
cbind(m,m2)                 # combine m and m2 column-wise
##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
## [1,]    1    4    7   10    1    4
## [2,]    2    5    8   11    2    5
## [3,]    3    6    9   12    3    6
x<-c(1:3)           # numeric vector
y<-c("a","b")       # character vector
z<-matrix(1:6,nrow=2)   # numeric matrix
w<-list(x,y,z)          # define a list
w                   # display the list w
## [[1]]
## [1] 1 2 3
## 
## [[2]]
## [1] "a" "b"
## 
## [[3]]
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    1    3    5
## [2,]    2    4    6
w[[1]]
## [1] 1 2 3
w[[2]][2]       # second elements of the second component of w
## [1] "b"
w[[3]][1:2,2]       # element [1:2,2] of the third component of w
## [1] 3 4
 names(w)<-c('x','y','z')       # assign name to w
 w
## $x
## [1] 1 2 3
## 
## $y
## [1] "a" "b"
## 
## $z
##      [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,]    1    3    5
## [2,]    2    4    6
u<-unlist(w)        # change w into a character vector u
u
##  x1  x2  x3  y1  y2  z1  z2  z3  z4  z5  z6 
## "1" "2" "3" "a" "b" "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6"
  x<-c(4:1)     # define a numeric vector
  2*(x-1)       # operate on each element of x
## [1] 6 4 2 0
 x^2
## [1] 16  9  4  1
x<-c(4:1)
 x%%3       
## [1] 1 0 2 1