as vector() in R: How to Use as.vector() Function

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Vector is a fundamental data structure that contains elements of the same type. To check the data type of variable in R, use the typeof() function. To create a vector, use the c() function.

as.vector() in R

The as.vector() is a built-in R method that converts a distributed matrix into a non-distributed vector.  The as.vector() is a generic method that attempts to coerce its argument into a mode vector.

To convert any object to a vector in R, use the as.vector() method.

Syntax

as.vector(obj, mode = "any", proc.dest = "all")

Parameters

obj: The as.vector() function takes any obj and returns the vector or tries to coerce the obj into a vector of mode.

mode: It is a character string giving an atomic mode or “list“, or (except for ‘vector’) “any”.

proc.dest: It is a destination process for storing the matrix.

Return Value

It returns an ordinary vector from the R object.

Example

Define an array that is an R object and convert that array to vector using as.vector() method.

arr <- array(c(12, 13, 14, 17, 21, 51), c(3, 2))
arr
class(arr)
vt <- as.vector(arr)
vt
class(vt)

Output

     [,1] [,2]
[1,]  12   17
[2,]  13   21
[3,]  14   51
[1] "matrix" "array"
[1] 12 13 14 17 21 51
[1] "numeric"

As you can see that we have converted an array object to a vector using as.vector() function.

Convert Matrix into Vector using as.vector()

To convert a matrix into a vector, use the as.vector() function. The as.vector() function produces a vector of the given length and mode. If we want to create a vector of consecutive numbers, the : operator is beneficial.

mtrx <- matrix(c(1:16), 4, 4)
mtrx
class(mtrx)
vt <- as.vector(mtrx)
vt
class(vt)

Output

    [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
[1,]  1    5    9   13
[2,]  2    6   10   14
[3,]  3    7   11   15
[4,]  4    8   12   16
[1] "matrix" "array"
[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
[1] "integer"

And we get the ordinary vector from an array in R. For as.vector, a vector. All attributes are removed from the result of an atomic mode, but not in general for a list result. The default method handles 24 input types and 12 values of type: the details of most coercions are undocumented and subject to change.

is.vector() function in R

The is.vector() function returns TRUE if the input is a vector of the specified mode having no attributes other than names; otherwise, It returns FALSE.

Syntax

is.vector(obj, mode = "any")

Example

mtrx <- matrix(c(1:16), 4, 4)
vt <- as.vector(mtrx)
vt
is.vector(vt)

Output

[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
[1] TRUE

That is it for as.vector() function in R Programming.

See also

as.numeric() function in R

Convert R List to Numeric

Convert R Character to Numeric

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