[R] advice/opinion on "<-" vs "=" in teaching R

Thomas Lumley tlumley at u.washington.edu
Fri Jan 15 17:07:35 CET 2010


On Thu, 14 Jan 2010, Erin Hodgess wrote:

> Hi R People:
>
> I'm teaching a statistical computing class using R starting next week
> (yay!) and I have an opinion type question, please.
>
> I'm old school and use "<-" in an assignment.
>
> However, I'm starting to see the "=" in the literature.
>
> Which should I use or does it matter, please?

I would say to use = if you are teaching people familiar with C or Java, and to use <- otherwise.

       -thomas

Thomas Lumley			Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics
tlumley at u.washington.edu	University of Washington, Seattle



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