Data frames
The data frame is the main data structure in R. It's possible to envisage the data frame as a table of data, with rows and columns. Unlike the list structure, the data frame can contain different types of data. In R, we use the data.frame()
command in order to create a data frame.
The data frame is extremely flexible for working with structured data, and it can ingest data from many different data types. Two main ways to ingest data into data frames involves the use of many data connectors, which connect to data sources such as databases, for example. There is also a command, read.table()
, which takes in data.
Here is an example, populated data frame. There are three columns, and two rows. The top of the data frame is the header. Each row holds a line of data row, starting with the row name, and then followed by the data itself. Each data member of a row is called a cell.
In R, we can create data frames by accessing external data,...