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tapply() and Ragged Arrays in R

Benjamin Smith explains how tapply() works:

While I saw other programmers use this function, I found myself unsure how of how it worked or knew when I would need to use it. In this blog I attempt to change that and explain the cryptic description by showing some applications with my commentary and how it compares to using the “tidy” approach with tidyverse.

My inspiration for writing this blog was from seeing Dr. Norm Matloff’s blog where he mentions the use of tapply() and his thoughts on the tidyverse. For a more thorough treatment on his critique of the tidyverse and “tidy” methods, check out his formal essay here.

Read on to learn the benefit of learning and using tapply().