seq Function in R (5 Examples)
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to generate a sequence of numbers using the seq function in the R programming language.
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Definition & Basic R Syntax of seq Function
Definition: The seq R function generates a sequence of numeric values.
Basic R Syntax: You can find the basic R programming syntax of the seq function below.
seq(1, 5) # Basic R syntax of seq function |
seq(1, 5) # Basic R syntax of seq function
In the following, I’ll show five examples for the application of the seq function in R programming.
Example 1: Basic Application of seq() Function
The following code illustrates how to apply the seq function in its most minimalistic way:
seq(10) # Apply seq function # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
seq(10) # Apply seq function # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
In the previous R code, we simply specified the value 10 within the seq function. In this case, the function uses the value 1 as starting point and the value 10 as ending point of the sequence. As you can see based on the previous R code, we therefore created a numeric vector ranging from 1 to 10.
Example 2: Generating Sequence from X to Y
In this Section, I’ll show how to modify the starting point of our sequence using the from argument of the seq function.
seq(3, 10) # seq function from to # 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
seq(3, 10) # seq function from to # 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
In the previous R syntax, we specified two values. The first value is the starting point (i.e. the from argument) and the second value is the ending point (i.e. the to argument).
Example 3: Generating Sequence from X to Y by Certain Value
In this Example, I’ll explain how to create a sequence with an increment unequal to 1. For this, we have to specify a third value within the seq function (i.e. the by argument):
seq(3, 10, 0.5) # seq function by 0.5 # 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 |
seq(3, 10, 0.5) # seq function by 0.5 # 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0
The previous R code generated a sequence with increment 0.33.
Example 4: Generating Sequence from X to Y with Given Length
In Example 4, I’ll explain how to return a sequence of numeric values with a manually specified length using the length.out argument. In this example, we specify that the length of our vector should be 5:
seq(3, 10, length.out = 5) # Sequence of length 5 # 3.00 4.75 6.50 8.25 10.00 |
seq(3, 10, length.out = 5) # Sequence of length 5 # 3.00 4.75 6.50 8.25 10.00
Example 5: Generating Sequence from X to Y Along Certain Data Object
Similar to the length.out argument shown in Example 4, we can also use the along.with argument. The along.with argument specifies that the output of the seq function should have the same length as the data object assigned to along.with.
seq(3, 10, along.with = 1:5) # Using along.with argument # 3.00 4.75 6.50 8.25 10.00 |
seq(3, 10, along.with = 1:5) # Using along.with argument # 3.00 4.75 6.50 8.25 10.00
Video, Further Resources & Summary
I have recently published a video on my YouTube channel, which shows the examples of this post. Please find the video below:
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In addition to the video, you may want to have a look at some of the other articles of my website. I have released several articles already.
- Create Sequence of Repeated Values
- rep Function in R
- R pretty Function
- R Functions List (+ Examples)
- The R Programming Language
In summary: This article showed how to apply the seq function in the R programming language.
Note that the R programming language provides some primitive alternatives to the seq function, which can be used to improve the speed and efficiency of a code. These functions include seq.int(), seq_along(), and seq_len().
Don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below, in case you have any additional questions and/or comments. In addition, don’t forget to subscribe to my email newsletter in order to get updates on new articles.
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14 Comments. Leave new
hi i have a problem in R code, can u halp me thanx
Rashid Ali
from karachi Pakistan.
Hey Rashid,
Could you post your question here in the comments?
Regards,
Joachim
Hi Joachim
How to create a vector using seq function if the size of the vector given is 10 and the elements in
the vector are multiples of 5 arranged sequentially, starting from 40?
Hey Ghotala,
Do you mean like that?
Regards,
Joachim
Hi please help me with this question,
# Try to write a code for printing sequence of numbers from 1 to 50 with the differences of 3, 5, 10
Hey Ayesha,
Could you share the code you have tried yourself so far?
I’m happy to help, but I want to avoid doing your entire assignment. 🙂
Regards,
Joachim
I would like some help with my R code. How does one use seq() or rep() in creating the following vector in R. 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0
Hey Stephen,
Apologies for the late reply, I just got back from vacation. Do you still need help with this?
Regards,
Joachim
hi
i typed this code: seq(c(4,3,4,4,5) and got the output as #1 2 3 4 5 6
can you explain the logic of getting this
Hi Tharu,
I’m sorry for the late response, I just came back from holidays. Are you still looking for help?
Regards,
Joachim
How about : inside of seq()?
i.e. seq(4:12)
Hey Sookja,
Could you illustrate your desired output?
Regards,
Joachim
3. Create Data frame with 3 columns and 5 rows and write a code to fetch and delete row and a column using index and add new column and row to the existed data frame.
>>can someone please share me answer?
Hey Amarjeet,
I would need some more context to answer this question. Furthermore, please share the code you have tried yourself. I don’t want to do your entire assignment for you 😉
Regards,
Joachim