str()

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KyraThompson's avatar
KyraThompson
Published Oct 7, 2022
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The str() function displays the internal structure of an object such as an array, list, matrix, factor, or data frame.

Syntax

str(object)

The object parameter is passed to the str() function to return a string representation that can be combined with other strings.

Example

The following example uses a CSV file named canines.csv with the following information in it:

First Name Last Name Age Breed
Max Lancaster 18 Australian Sheperd
Bella Stone 4 Yorkshire Terrier
Luna Bae 2 Golden Retriever
Abe Thompson 10 American Pit Bull Terrier
Teddy Keagan 6 English Bull Dog

The following example converts the data into a data frame and then uses the str() function on it:

# Read file
df <- read.csv("canines.csv")


# Display internal structure
str(df)

This returns the following:

'data.frame':  5 obs. of 4 variables:
 $ First.Name: chr  "Max" "Bella" "Luna" "Abe" ...
 $ Last.Name : chr  "Lancaster" "Stone" "Bae" "Thompson" ...
 $ Age       : int  18 4 2 10 6
 $ Breed     : chr  "Australian Sheperd" "Yorkshire Terrier"
               "Golden Retriever" "American Pit Bull Terrier" ...

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