R - min() Function

The R min() function returns smallest of all elements present in the argument. The syntax for using this function is given below:

Syntax

min(x1, x2, ..., na.rm = FALSE)

Parameters

`x1, x2, ...`	`Required.` Specify numeric vectors.
`na.rm`	`Optional.` Specify TRUE to remove NA or NaN values before the computation. Default is FALSE.

Return Value

Returns smallest of all elements present in the argument.

Example:

The example below shows the usage of min() function.

v1 <- c(10, 55, 25, -56, 30, 99)
v2 <- c(1, -2, 30, 4, -50)
cat("Smallest element of v1:", min(v1), "\n")
cat("Smallest element of v2:", min(v2), "\n")
cat("Smallest element of v1 and v2:", min(v1, v2), "\n")

m <- matrix(c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60), ncol=2)
cat("\nThe matrix contains:\n")
print(m)
cat("Smallest element of matrix:", min(m))
cat("\nSmallest element along first column:", min(m[,1]))

The output of the above code will be:

Smallest element of v1: -56 
Smallest element of v2: -50 
Smallest element of v1 and v2: -56 

The matrix contains:
     [,1] [,2]
[1,]   10   40
[2,]   20   50
[3,]   30   60
Smallest element of matrix: 10
Smallest element along first column: 10

Using na.rm parameter

The na.rm parameter can be set TRUE to remove NA or NaN values before the computation.

Example:

Consider the example below to see the usage of na.rm parameter.

v1 <- c(10, 20, 30, NA)
v2 <- c(10, 20, 30, NaN)

cat("Smallest element of v1:", min(v1), "\n")
cat("Smallest element after removing NA:", min(v1, na.rm=TRUE), "\n")

cat("\nSmallest element of v2:", min(v2), "\n")
cat("Smallest element after removing NaN:", min(v2, na.rm=TRUE), "\n")

The output of the above code will be:

Smallest element of v1: NA 
Smallest element after removing NA: 10 

Smallest element of v2: NaN 
Smallest element after removing NaN: 10

❮ R Statistical Functions