How to use the ceiling() function in R?

In this tutorial, we will look at how to use the built-in ceiling() function in R with the help of some examples.

What does the ceiling() function do in R?

You can use the built-in math function, ceiling() to get the smallest integer greater than or equal to a given number in R. Pass the number for which you want to get the ceiling as an argument to the ceiling() function. The following is the syntax –

ceiling(x)

If you pass an integer to the ceiling() function, you’ll get the same value as the output. Note that you can apply the ceiling() function to a numeric vector, array, matrix, and a dataframe as well.

Examples

Let’s look at some examples of using the ceiling() function in R.

Apply ceiling() function to a number

First, let’s look at some examples of using the ceiling() function on a positive real number.

# ceiling for a positive real number
print(ceiling(3.2))
print(ceiling(3.4))
print(ceiling(3.7))

Output:

[1] 4
[1] 4
[1] 4

You can see that we get the same output, 4 for the values, 3.2, 3.4, and 3.7. Notice that 4 is the smallest integer that is greater than or equal to the above values and thus we get 4 as the output for all the values in the above example.

Let’s now apply the ceiling function to negative real numbers.

# ceiling for a negative real number
print(ceiling(-3.2))
print(ceiling(-3.4))
print(ceiling(-3.7))

Output:

[1] -3
[1] -3
[1] -3

We get -3 as the result for the numbers, -3.2, -3.4, and -3.7. Here, -3 is the smallest integer that is greater than or equal to all the passed values.

Apply ceiling() function to a numeric vector

You can similarly apply the ceiling() function to a numeric vector in R. If you apply the ceiling() function to a numeric vector, it will compute the ceiling for each value in the vector.

Let’s look at an example.

# ceiling for a numeric vector
vec <- c(0, 1.3, -1.3, 2.5, 3.1)
print(ceiling(vec))

Output:

[1]  0  2 -1  3  4

You can see that we get the ceil (or the ceiling value) for each value in the numeric vector.

You might also be interested in –

• Calculate Median of a Vector in R
• Get the Maximum value in an R Vector
• Get the Minimum Value in an R Vector