jaRgon atomic vector An object that contains only one form of data. The atomic modes are: "logical", "numeric", "complex" and "character". attach The act of adding an item to the search list. You usually attach a package with the library function, you attach saved files and objects with the attach function. data frame A rectangular data object where each column may be a different type of data. Conceptually a generalization of a matrix, but implemented entirely differently. factor A data object that represents categorical data. It is possible (and often unfortunate) to confuse a factor with a character vector. global environment The first location on the search list, and the place where objects that you create reside. list A type of object with possibly multiple components where each component may be an arbitrary object, including a list. matrix A rectangular data object where all cells have the same data type. Conceptually a specialization of a data frame, but implemented entirely differently. package A collection of R objects in a special format that includes help files and such. Most packages primarily or exclusively contain functions, but some packages exclusively contain datasets. search list The collection of locations that R searches for objects when it is evaluating a command. Back to top level of Some hints for the R beginner First Version: 2010 March 07   Last Modified: 2010 March 13 Direct access to this page is via http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/jaRgon.html