You can use one of the following two methods to quickly create a matrix from vectors in R:
Method 1: Use cbind() to bind vectors into matrix by columns
my_matrix <- cbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)
Method 2: Use rbind() to bind vectors into matrix by rows
my_matrix <- rbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Method 1: Use cbind() to Bind Vectors into Matrix by Columns
The following code shows how to use cbind() to bind together three vectors into a matrix by columns:
#define vectors
vector1 <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
vector2 <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20)
vector3 <- c(3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30)
#column-bind vectors together into matrix
my_matrix <- cbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)
#view resulting matrix
my_matrix
vector1 vector2 vector3
[1,] 1 2 3
[2,] 2 4 6
[3,] 3 6 9
[4,] 4 8 12
[5,] 5 10 15
[6,] 6 12 18
[7,] 7 14 21
[8,] 8 16 24
[9,] 9 18 27
[10,] 10 20 30
#view dimensions of matrix
dim(my_matrix)
[1] 10 3
We can see that the result is a matrix with 10 rows and 3 columns, with each of the three original vectors representing a unique column.
Method 2: Use rbind() to Bind Vectors into Matrix by Rows
The following code shows how to use rbind() to bind together three vectors into a matrix by columns:
#define vectors
vector1 <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
vector2 <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20)
vector3 <- c(3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30)
#row-bind vectors together into matrix
my_matrix <- rbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)
#view resulting matrix
my_matrix
[,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10]
vector1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
vector2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
vector3 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
#view dimensions of matrix
dim(my_matrix)
[1] 3 10
We can see that the result is a matrix with 3 rows and 10 columns, with each of the three original vectors representing a unique row.
Note: In these examples, we chose to bind together three vectors into a matrix, but we can use this exact syntax to bind together any number of vectors we’d like into a matrix.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common functions in R:
How to Convert Data Frame Column to Vector in R
How to Convert Matrix to Vector in R
How to Create an Empty Matrix in R
How to Create an Empty Vector in R