Logical Vectors

As well as numerical vectors, . allows manipulation of logical quantities. The elements of a logical vectors have just two possible values, represented formally as FALSE and TRUE. These are usually abbreviated as F and T, respectively.

Logical vectors are generated by conditions. For example

temp <- x>13

sets temp as a vector of the same length as x with values F corresponding to elements of x where the condition is not met and T where it is.

The logical operators are <, <=, >, >=, == for exact equality and != for inequality. In addition if c1 and c2 are logical expressions, then c1$\,$&$\,$c2 is their intersection, c1$\,$|$\,$c2 is their union and !$\,$c1 is the negation of c1.

Logical vectors may be used in ordinary arithmetic, in which case they are coerced into numeric vectors, F becoming 0 and T becoming 1. However there are situations where logical vectors and their coerced numeric counterparts are not equivalent, for example see the next subsection.



Jeff Banfield
2/13/1998