What is the head() function in R?

Overview

The head() function in R is used to determine the first or last part of an R object.

Syntax

head(x, n)

Parameter value

The head() function takes the following parameter values.

  • x: This represents the R object (a matrix, data.frame, ftable, table, function).
  • n: This represents a single integer. When given a zero or positive value, the output object contains the number of elements for a given vector, the rows for a given matrix or data frame, or lines for a given function. When given a negative value, all but the first or last n number of elements of the input R object are returned.

Return value

The head() function returns an object like that of the input object, x.

Example

# creating a data frame object

mydataframe<- data.frame(

   numbers = 1:10,

   alphabets = LETTERS[1:10],

   symbol = c('*', '!', '#', '?', ',', '/', '=', '+', '<', ')')

)



# implementing the head() function returning only 7 rows of the data frame

head(mydataframe, n=7)

Explanation

  • Lines 2 to 6: We create an R object (a data frame) mydataframe using the data.frame() function.
  • Line 9: We implement the head() function by making the resulting data frame have only 7 rows.

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