You can use one of the following methods to create an empty vector in R:
#create empty vector with length zero and no specific class
empty_vec #create empty vector with length zero and a specific class
empty_vec #create empty vector with specific length
empty_vec 10)
The following examples show how to use each of these methods in practice.
Method 1: Create Empty Vector with Length Zero
The following code shows how to create a vector with a length of zero and no specific class:
#create empty vector with length zero and no specific class
empty_vec #display length of vector
length(empty_vec)
[1] 0
We can then fill the vector with values if we’d like:
#add values 1 through 10 to empty vector
empty_vec #view updated vector
empty_vec
[1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Method 2: Create Empty Vector of Specific Class
The following code shows how to create empty vectors of specific classes:
#create empty vector of class 'character'
empty_vec
[1] "character"
#create empty vector of class 'numeric'
empty_vec #create empty vector of class 'logical'
empty_vec
Method 3: Create Empty Vector with Specific Length
The following code shows how to create a vector with a specific length in R:
#create empty vector with length 10 empty_vec 10) #display empty vector empty_vec [1] NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
If you know the length of the vector at the outset, this is the most memory-efficient solution in R.
Additional Resources
How to Create an Empty List in R
How to Create an Empty Data Frame in R
How to Convert List to Vector in R
How to Convert Data Frame Column to Vector in R