What is the assign() function in R?

Overview

The assign() function in R is simply used to assign a value to a name in an environment.

Syntax

assign(x, value, pos = -1, envir = as.environment(pos),
       inherits = FALSE, immediate = TRUE)

Required parameter values

The assign() function takes the following mandatory parameter values:

• x: This represents the variable name that is given as a character string.
• value: This is the value to be assigned to the x variable.

Optional parameter values

The assign() function takes the following optional parameter values:

• pos: This represents where to do the assignment. By default, it is done in the current environment.
• envir: This represents the environment.
• inherits: This is used in case the enclosing frames of the environment need to be inspected or not.
• immediate: This is an ignored compatibility feature.

Code example

Code explanation

• Line 2: We use the assign() function to assign the value "Theo" to the variable name x.
• Line 6: We use the assign() function to assign the value 42 to the variable x, which is already the same as Theo in the environment.
• Line 7: We print the variable Theo.