non-numeric argument to binary operator

You are making difficulties where there are none.  Consider

x1 <- 1:3     #  Why c(...)?
x2 <- 2:4
x12 <- x1*x2  #  element by element product  (matlab .* operator)
x12

[1]  2  6 12

x12 <- outer(x1, x2)  # another possibility - outer product
x12

[,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]    2    3    4
[2,]    4    6    8
[3,]    6    9   12

x12 <- x1 %*% x2      # yet another possibility - inner product
x12

[,1]
[1,]   20

It's probably best if you start learning R by reading the introductory material and trying it out. If the going gets tough, persevere. Trying to learn R directly from R-help can get a bit tedious (on both sides).

Bill Venables
http://www.cmis.csiro.au/bill.venables/ 


-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of cruz
Sent: Thursday, 5 February 2009 1:36 PM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: [R] non-numeric argument to binary operator

Hi,

I compute the value of xi*xj by "for" loops, this how I try:

x1 <- c(1:3)
x2 <- c(2:4)

### to compute x1*x2

(paste("x", 1, sep = ""))*(paste("x", 2, sep = ""))

Error in (paste("x", 1, sep = "")) * (paste("x", 2, sep = "")) :
  non-numeric argument to binary operator

All comments are appreciated.

Thanks,
cruz

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