
Problem –
You want to operate on an entire vector at once.
Solution –
The usual arithmetic operators can perform element-wise operations on entire vectors.
Let’s say we have two vectors.
> a <- c(5, 10, 15, 20, 25)
> b <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10)
Now, we can perform various arithmetic operations on them.
> a + b
[1] 7 14 21 28 35
> a - b
[1] 3 6 9 12 15
> a * b
[1] 10 40 90 160 250
> a / b
[1] 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5
You can also perform vector arithmetic with a scalar.
> a + 2
[1] 7 12 17 22 27
> a - 2
[1] 3 8 13 18 23
> a * 2
[1] 10 20 30 40 50
> a / 2
[1] 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.5