Naming of the apply function family in R

Question

I'm currently studying R. In particular I need to remember the functions in the apply-function family (e.g. lapply, sapply, mapply, etc.). I know what each function in the apply-function family does (especially this answer helps a lot), but mix up the names from time to time.

Is there a natural meaning for the prefix of each apply function (like lapply = 'list'-apply)?

Answer 1

Yes, you got following apply r-basic functions:

• apply for apply ;)
• lapply for lists or vectors (documentation)

• vapply for specific return value (documentation)

• sapply for simple (documentation)

• mapply for multiple list or vector arguments (documentation)

• tapply for table (check old question here)

• rapply for recursive (documentation)

I think you can interprete some prefix differently, like m was mentioned in the commentary as multivariate (commentary got removed). I tried to use the wording of the documentation, so it's more likely to be understood.

Also lapply, sapply and vapply are in the same documentation site, since the sapply and vapply are wrapper for lapply