with & within Functions in R (Example)

This tutorial explains how to use the with() and within() functions in the R programming language.

Example Data

my_data <- data.frame(x = c(2, 4, 6, 8),      # Create example data
                      y = c(3, 1, 4, 1))

with Function in R

The with function evaluates an expression within the data environment and returns the output to the RStudio console.

with(my_data, x + y)                          # Application of with function
# 5  5 10  9

within Function in R

The within function evaluates an expression and concatenates the result of this expression to the original data frame:

within(my_data, z <- x + y)                   # Application of within function
# x y  z
# 2 3  5
# 4 1  5
# 6 4 10
# 8 1  9