/
The R help function

The R help function

In R information about individual functions can be found on the function manual page including:

  • description: what the function does
  • usage: shows the syntax of the function including all arguments - this is a generalised form of how you would use the function
  • arguments: of the function. These are all the things you can customise in the function
  • details and values: give some additional information about the function
  • examples: of how the function is run. You will be able to copy and paste these examples into R/RStudio to run yourself

You can access the help page of a function in a number of ways

  • To open up the help page within R/RStudio using the help command :
help(insert_function_name)
# an example for print()

help(print)
  • an equivalent command is to use the help operator ?:
?(print)

  • In your script, type and run
Print()
print("Hello world")
 
#output below
> print("hello world")
[1] "hello world"

Information: Print()

According to the manual, the print command has the usage

print(x..)

Function_name(arg1)
where x is “Hello world”

Related content

v6.0 Function help from the manual
v6.0 Function help from the manual
More like this
Function help from the manual v5
Function help from the manual v5
More like this
Function help from the manual v6
Function help from the manual v6
More like this
Function help from the manual
Function help from the manual
More like this
Settings for automated documentation
Settings for automated documentation
More like this
Become familiar with R Studio and basic concepts of R
Become familiar with R Studio and basic concepts of R
More like this

DataSHIELD Wiki by DataSHIELD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://www.datashield.ac.uk/wiki