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Operators To Check, If a Value Lies Within Or Outside a Given Range

Source: R/between-operators.R
between-operators.Rd

The between and outside operators are used to check, whether a vector of given values x lie within a defined range (or outside respectively). The values can be numbers, text or dates. Ordered factors are supported.

Usage

x %[]% rng

x %[)% rng

x %(]% rng

x %()% rng

x %][% rng

x %](% rng

x %)[% rng

x %)(% rng

Arguments

x

a variable with at least ordinal scale, usually a numeric value, but can be an ordered factor or a text as well. Texts would be treated alphabetically.

rng

a vector of two values or a matrix with 2 columns, defining the minimum and maximum of the range for x.
If rng is a matrix, x or rng will be recycled. Matrix ranges are supported for numeric (and date) x only.

Value

a logical vector of the same length as x.

Details

The "BETWEEN" operators basically combine two conditional statements into one and simplify the query process.
They are merely a wrapper for: x >= rng[1] & x <= rng[2], where the round bracket ( means strictly greater (>) and the square bracket [ means greater or equal (>=). Numerical values of x will be handled by C-code, which is significantly faster than two comparisons in R (especially when x is huge).

For the matching outside-operator, boundary elements of the corresponding between-range return FALSE; that is, they are not considered outside whenever the negated between-operator includes that boundary.

Both arguments, x and rng, will be recycled to the highest dimension, which is either the length of the vector (x) or the number of rows of the matrix (rng).
See also the routines used to check, whether two ranges overlap (overlap(), distance()).

The "OUTSIDE" operators are the negations of the corresponding "BETWEEN" operators, matched by meaning rather than by mirrored bracket symbols:

  • \%][\% negates \%()\% (strictly outside both bounds)

  • \%](\% negates \%(]\%

  • \%)[\% negates \%[)\%

  • \%)(\% negates \%[]\% (strictly outside, both bounds of the between-operator were closed)

See also

if(), ifelse()

Other data.interval: intervals, range-operators

Examples


x <- 1:9
x %[]% c(3,5)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# outside
x <- 1:9
x %][% c(3,5)
#> [1]  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE

c(x,NA) %[]% c(3,5)
#>  [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE    NA

x %(]% c(3,5)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# no result when from > to:
x %[]% c(5,3)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
x %(]% c(5,5)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# no problem:
ordered(x) %[]% c(3,5)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# not meaningful:
factor(x) %[]% c(3,5)
#> [1] NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

# characters
letters[letters %(]% c("d","h")]
#> [1] "e" "f" "g" "h"

# select numbers between 0.4 and 0.5
x <- runif(20)
x %[]% c(0.4, 0.5)
#>  [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#> [13]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# use it with an ordered factor
x <- ordered(sample(LETTERS, 20), levels = LETTERS)
x %[)% c("G","K")
#>  [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#> [13] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE


# use multiple ranges
2 %[]% cbind(1:4,2:5)
#> [1]  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE

# both arguments are recycled
c(2,3) %[]% cbind(1:4,2:5)
#> [1]  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE