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Scope of Variables in R Programming

Global variables in R can be accessed and modified from any part of a program as they are declared outside of functions. Local variables only exist within the function they are declared in and are destroyed after the function call ends. The main differences between local and global variables are their scope, lifetime, potential for naming conflicts, and memory usage.

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Pooja Dixit
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77 views

Scope of Variables in R Programming

Global variables in R can be accessed and modified from any part of a program as they are declared outside of functions. Local variables only exist within the function they are declared in and are destroyed after the function call ends. The main differences between local and global variables are their scope, lifetime, potential for naming conflicts, and memory usage.

Uploaded by

Pooja Dixit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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 Scope of Variables in R programming

The location where we can find a variable and also access it if required is called the scope of a
variable. There are mainly two types of variable scopes:
Global Variables

Global variables are those variables that exist throughout the execution of a program. It can
be changed and accessed from any part of the program.

As the name suggests, Global Variables can be accessed from any part of the program.

They are available throughout the lifetime of a program.


They are declared anywhere in the program outside all of the functions or blocks.
Declaring global variables

Global variables are usually declared outside of all of the functions and blocks. They can be
accessed from any portion of the program.

# R program to illustrate
# usage of global variables

# global variable
global = 5

# global variable accessed from


# within a function
display = function(){
print(global)
}
display()

# changing value of global variable


global = 10
display()

Output

[1] 5
[1] 10

In the above code, the variable ‘global’ is declared at the top of the program outside all of the
functions so it is a global variable and can be accessed or updated from anywhere in the program.

Local Variables

Local variables are those variables that exist only within a certain part of a program like a
function and are released when the function call ends. Local variables do not exist outside the
block in which they are declared, i.e. they can not be accessed or used outside that block.

Declaring local variables 

Local variables are declared inside a block.

# R program to illustrate
# usage of local variables

func = function(){
# this variable is local to the
# function func() and cannot be
# accessed outside this function
age = 18
print(age)
}

cat("Age is:\n")
func()
Output

Age is:
[1] 18

Difference between local and global variables in R

1. Scope A global variable is defined outside of any function and may be accessed from
anywhere in the program, as opposed to a local variable.
2. Lifetime A local variable’s lifetime is constrained by the function in which it is defined. The
local variable is destroyed once the function has finished running. A global variable, on the
other hand, doesn’t leave memory until the program is finished running or the variable is
explicitly deleted.
3. Naming conflicts If the same variable name is used in different portions of the program,
they may occur since a global variable can be accessed from anywhere in the program.
Contrarily, local variables are solely applicable to the function in which they are defined,
reducing the likelihood of naming conflicts.
4. Memory usage Because global variables are kept in memory throughout program
execution, they can eat up more memory than local variables. Local variables, on the
other hand, are created and destroyed only when necessary, therefore they normally use
less memory.

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