What are Vectors in R?

In R, a vector is the simplest and most important data structure. It is a collection of elements that are all of the same type, such as numbers, text, or logical values.

💡 Simple idea

A vector is like a row of values stored in a single variable.

How to create a vector

You create vectors in R using the c() function (combine function).

numbers <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

This creates a numeric vector with five elements.

Types of vectors

🔢 Numeric vectors — numbers (e.g. 1, 2, 3)
🔤 Character vectors — text (e.g. "apple", "banana")
✔️ Logical vectors — TRUE / FALSE values

Examples

# Numeric vector
nums <- c(10, 20, 30)

# Character vector
names <- c("Asha", "Rahul", "Meena")

# Logical vector
flags <- c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)

How vectors work

One powerful feature of R is that operations are applied to every element of a vector automatically.

nums <- c(1, 2, 3)

nums * 2

Output: 2 4 6

Indexing vectors

You can access elements using square brackets [].

nums <- c(10, 20, 30)

nums[1] # 10

Why vectors matter

📊 Core building block of R programming
⚙️ Used in all data analysis tasks
🚀 Enables fast mathematical operations
📦 Basis for matrices, lists, and data frames

📌 Real-world fact

Almost everything in R — from data frames to statistical models — is built on vectors.

Summary

Vectors in R are basic structures that store elements of the same type. They allow fast operations and form the foundation of data analysis in R.

In short: A vector is a simple, powerful container for data in R.