Applying a Function over an Object in R Programming sapply() Function (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2025

sapply() function in R Language takes list, vector or data frame as input and gives output in vector or matrix. It is useful for operations on list objects and returns a list object of same length of original set.

Syntax: sapply(X, FUN)Parameters: X: A vector or an objectFUN: Function applied to each element of x

Example 1:

Python3 `

R program to illustrate

sapply function

Getting the value of Biochemical oxygen

demand data set

BOD

Calling sapply() function which

will sum the data of each columns

of BOD

sapply(BOD, sum)

`

Output:

Time demand 1 1 8.3 2 2 10.3 3 3 19.0 4 4 16.0 5 5 15.6 6 7 19.8 Time demand 22 89

Example 2:

Python3 `

R program to illustrate

sapply function

Initializing a list

mylist <- list(c(1, 2, 3, 4), c(2, 4, 6, 8), c(1, 3, 5, 7))

Calling the sapply() function which

will calculate mean of each vector elements

sapply(mylist, mean)

`

Output:

[1] 2.5 5.0 4.0