Sample covariance matrix in R

Alaios <alaios <at> yahoo.com> writes:

Hello everyone.
I would like to find the sample covariance matrix using R.

So far I read on the wikipedia what a sample_covariance is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_covariance

according to wikipedia one vector is
enough to calculate the sample covariance matrix.

?I'm sorry, where does it say that?? ?The expression given
for the sample covariance is

? ?q_{ij}=\frac{1}{N-1}\sum_{k=1}^{N}
? ?\left( x_{ik}-\bar{x}_i \right) \left( x_{jk}-\bar{x}_j \right) .

if N=1 this whole thing will go up in smoke: the denominator and
numerator will both be zero.

In R I tried cov(myvector) and I get the reply that I need to
?pass either two argument or one matrix with x,y
values .

How can I find the sample covariance matrix?

?You need more than one sample (!); even trying to do it with
two samples would give you a mathematically well-defined but
statistically awful estimate.

?I strongly suggest that you consult a statistics book or
a local expert ...

?good luck