Functions in R - MCQ

These questions are meant to test understanding of the lessons about writing R functions

Functions and their environments

Suppose we have a simple function to calculate a circle’s diameter from its circumference:

circumference_to_diameter <- function(circumference){
  diameter <- circumference / pi
  return(diameter)
}

Then, we run the following bit of code:

diameter <- 30

circumference_to_diameter(15)

If we then ask R for the value of the object diameter, what answer will we get?

1. 9.54
2. 30
3. 15
4. 4.77

Functions with default arguments

BNL <- function(week = 1, days = 5, living_room = 3, forgiven = -1){
  lyrics <- data.frame(week, days, living_room, forgiven)
  return(lyrics)
}

BNL()

##   week days living_room forgiven
## 1    1    5           3       -1

Which of the following lines will return this dataframe:

1. BNL(45, 45, 44, week = 47)
2. BNL(w = 45, l = 44, d = 45, f = 47)
3. BNL(data.frame(week = 45, days = 45, living_room = 44, forgiven = 47))
4. BNL(forgiven = 45, living_room = 45, days = 44, week = 47)

Discussion

1. If students choose this answer, they are looking only at the position of the arguments – ignoring that one of them has been given a name.
2. This is the correct answer, which relies on partial matching.
3. Interestingly this form doesn’t actually cause an error, just a strange-looking data frame. Students who choose this answer probably are confused about the differences between inputs and outputs of a function. This function takes four numeric values as input, and returns one data.frame.
4. In contrast to the first, here the values are in the correct sequence but the names are scrambled.