R Style Guide & Function Writing Best Practices

R Style Guide & Function Writing Best Practices

Consistent naming, spacing, structure, and function design for R code

Function Writing Best Practices

Structure and Style

# Good function structure
rescale01 <- function(x) {
  rng <- range(x, na.rm = TRUE, finite = TRUE)
  (x - rng[1]) / (rng[2] - rng[1])
}

# Use type-stable outputs
map_dbl()   # returns numeric vector
map_chr()   # returns character vector
map_lgl()   # returns logical vector

Naming and Arguments

# Good naming: snake_case for variables/functions
calculate_mean_score <- function(data, score_col) {
  # Function body
}

# Prefix non-standard arguments with .
my_function <- function(.data, ...) {
  # Reduces argument conflicts
}

Style Guide Essentials

Object Names

• Use snake_case for all names