What does %*% mean in R [duplicate]

Answer 1

matrix multiplication, see the following example:

> A <- matrix (c(1,3,4, 5,8,9, 1,3,3), 3,3)
> A
     [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]    1    5    1
[2,]    3    8    3
[3,]    4    9    3
> 
> B <- matrix (c(2,4,5, 8,9,2, 3,4,5), 3,3)
> 
> B
     [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]    2    8    3
[2,]    4    9    4
[3,]    5    2    5
> 
> 
> A %*% B
     [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]   27   55   28
[2,]   53  102   56
[3,]   59  119   63

> B %*% A
     [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]   38  101   35
[2,]   47  128   43
[3,]   31   86   26

Also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_multiplication

If this does not follow the size of matrix rule you will get the error:

> A <- matrix(c(1,2,3,4,5,6), 3,2)
    > A
     [,1] [,2]
[1,]    1    4
[2,]    2    5
[3,]    3    6

> B <- matrix (c(3,1,3,4,4,4,4,4,3), 3,3)

> B
         [,1] [,2] [,3]
    [1,]    3    4    4
    [2,]    1    4    4
    [3,]    3    4    3
    > A%*%B
    Error in A %*% B : non-conformable arguments

Answer 2

Use ?'%*%' to get the documentation.

%*% is matrix multiplication. For matrix multiplication, you need an m x n matrix times an n x p matrix.