base (version 3.3)

MathFun: Miscellaneous Mathematical Functions

Description

abs(x) computes the absolute value of x, sqrt(x) computes the (principal) square root of x, $\sqrt{x}$.

The naming follows the standard for computer languages such as C or Fortran.

Usage

abs(x)
sqrt(x)

Arguments

x

a numeric or complex vector or array.

S4 methods

Both are S4 generic and members of the Math group generic.

Details

These are internal generic primitive functions: methods can be defined for them individually or via the Math group generic. For complex arguments (and the default method), z, abs(z) == Mod(z) and sqrt(z) == z^0.5.

abs(x) returns an integer vector when x is integer or logical.

References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

See Also

Arithmetic for simple, log for logarithmic, sin for trigonometric, and Special for special mathematical functions.

‘plotmath’ for the use of sqrt in plot annotation.

Examples

require(stats) # for spline
require(graphics)
xx <- -9:9
plot(xx, sqrt(abs(xx)),  col = "red")
lines(spline(xx, sqrt(abs(xx)), n=101), col = "pink")