How to find help for a function

Run ?function_name

OR

Run help(function_name)

Note the absence of parenthesis () after function_name above.

So running:

?beep

Gives the following in the help panel:

It has two arguments, sound and expr, both of which have default values, so they do not need to be provided by us.

But if we wanted to tell beep() to play a different sound, we would have to provide a value for the sound argument from one of the many possible sounds as seen in the help file.

The Examples in help files can be very useful for trying out functions and understanding how they work.

Now try:

beep(10)
beepr::beep("facebook")
beep("fanfare")
# or any of the other sounds from the help file

Do you have to read the entire help file? No

As you begin to learn R, skim through help files and pay attention to the description, arguments (if you don’t know what to use), and most importantly, the examples.