An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. R language is rich in built-in operators and provides following types of operators.

Types of Operators

We have the following types of operators in R programming −

Arithmetic Operators

Following table shows the arithmetic operators supported by R language. The operators act on each element of the vector.

Operator Description
+ Adds two vectors
- Subtracts second vector from the first
* Multiplies both vectors
/ Divide the first vector with the second
%% Give the remainder of the first vector with the second
%/% The result of division of first vector with second (quotient)
^ The first vector raised to the exponent of second vector

Example

# Addition
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v+t)
## [1] 10.0  8.5 10.0
# Subtract
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v-t)
## [1] -6.0  2.5  2.0
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v*t)
## [1] 16.0 16.5 24.0
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v/t)
## [1] 0.250000 1.833333 1.500000
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v%%t)
## [1] 2.0 2.5 2.0
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v%/%t)
## [1] 0 1 1
v <- c( 2,5.5,6)
t <- c(8, 3, 4)
print(v^t)
## [1]  256.000  166.375 1296.000

Relational Operators

Following table shows the relational operators supported by R language. Each element of the first vector is compared with the corresponding element of the second vector. The result of comparison is a Boolean value.

Operator Description
> Checks if each element of the first vector is greater than the corresponding element of the second vector.
< Checks if each element of the first vector is less than the corresponding element of the second vector.
== Checks if each element of the first vector is equal to the corresponding element of the second vector.
<= Checks if each element of the first vector is less than or equal to the corresponding element of the second vector.
>= Checks if each element of the first vector is greater than or equal to the corresponding element of the second vector.
!= Checks if each element of the first vector is unequal to the corresponding element of the second vector. 
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v>t)
## [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v < t)
## [1]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v == t)
## [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v<=t)
## [1]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v>=t)
## [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE
v <- c(2,5.5,6,9)
t <- c(8,2.5,14,9)
print(v!=t)
## [1]  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE

Logical Operators

Following table shows the logical operators supported by R language. It is applicable only to vectors of type logical, numeric or complex. All numbers greater than 1 are considered as logical value TRUE.

Each element of the first vector is compared with the corresponding element of the second vector. The result of comparison is a Boolean value.

– The logical operator && and || considers only the first element of the vectors and give a vector of single element as output.

Operator Description
& It is called Element-wise Logical AND operator. It combines each element of the first vector with the corresponding element of the second vector and gives a output TRUE if both the elements are TRUE.
| It is called Element-wise Logical OR operator. It combines each element of the first vector with the corresponding element of the second vector and gives a output TRUE if one the elements is TRUE.
! It is called Logical NOT operator. Takes each element of the vector and gives the opposite logical value.
&& Called Logical AND operator. Takes first element of both the vectors and gives the TRUE only if both are TRUE.
|| Called Logical OR operator. Takes first element of both the vectors and gives the TRUE if one of them is TRUE. 
v <- c(3,1,TRUE,2+3i)
t <- c(4,1,FALSE,2+3i)
print(v&t)
## [1]  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE
v <- c(3,0,TRUE,2+2i)
t <- c(4,0,FALSE,2+3i)
print(v|t)
## [1]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE
v <- c(3,0,TRUE,2+2i)
print(!v)
## [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE
v <- c(3,0,TRUE,2+2i)
t <- c(1,3,TRUE,2+3i)
print(v&&t)
## [1] TRUE
v <- c(0,0,TRUE,2+2i)
t <- c(0,3,TRUE,2+3i)
print(v||t)
## [1] FALSE