# Colon

0th

Percentile

##### Colon Operator

Generate regular sequences.

Keywords
manip
##### Usage
from:to
a:b
##### Arguments
from

starting value of sequence.

to

(maximal) end value of the sequence.

a, b

factors of the same length.

##### Details

The binary operator : has two meanings: for factors a:b is equivalent to interaction(a, b) (but the levels are ordered and labelled differently).

For other arguments from:to is equivalent to seq(from, to), and generates a sequence from from to to in steps of 1 or -1. Value to will be included if it differs from from by an integer up to a numeric fuzz of about 1e-7. Non-numeric arguments are coerced internally (hence without dispatching methods) to numeric---complex values will have their imaginary parts discarded with a warning.

##### Value

For numeric arguments, a numeric vector. This will be of type integer if from is integer-valued and the result is representable in the R integer type, otherwise of type "double" (aka mode "numeric").

For factors, an unordered factor with levels labelled as la:lb and ordered lexicographically (that is, lb varies fastest).

##### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole. (for numeric arguments: S does not have : for factors.)

seq (a generalization of from:to).

As an alternative to using : for factors, interaction.

For : used in the formal representation of an interaction, see formula.

• :
• colon
##### Examples
library(base) # NOT RUN { 1:4 pi:6 # real 6:pi # integer f1 <- gl(2, 3); f1 f2 <- gl(3, 2); f2 f1:f2 # a factor, the "cross" f1 x f2 # } 
Documentation reproduced from package base, version 3.6.1, License: Part of R 3.6.1

### Community examples

richie@datacamp.com at Jan 19, 2017 base v3.3.2

a:b is a conveniently easy to type alternative to [seq.int(a, b)](https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/base/topics/seq) {r} -3:6 seq.int(-3, 6)  You can also have b less than a {r} 6:-3  Sequences don't have to start at a whole number. {r} -2.63:6.37  If b - a isn't a whole number, then the last fraction is ignored. {r} (e_to_the_e <- exp(exp(1))) 0:e_to_the_e  If a is a whole number, then the result has class integer (even if a has class numeric). {r} class(3) class(-3:6)  Be careful, 1:n is tricksy when n = 0 – this is a common source of bugs. Use [seq_len()](https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/base/topics/seq) instead for this case. {r} n <- 3 1:3 n <- 0 1:n seq_len(n)