Writing and Calling Functions (Introduction to Statistical Computing)

Lecture 4: Just as data structures tie related values together into objects, functions tie related commands together into objects. Declaring functions. Arguments (inputs) and return values (outputs). Named arguments, defaults, and calling functions. Interfaces: controlling what the function can see and do; first sketch of scoping rules. The importance of the interface. An example of writing and improving a function, for fitting the West et al. model of urban economies by nonlinear least squares. R for examples.

Introduction to Statistical Computing