[mziel]

YMMV, but I think this is pretty clear:

"lapply returns a list of the same length as X, each element of which is the result of applying FUN to the corresponding element of X" == lapply is a map() construct that takes a list and a function

"sapply is a user-friendly version and wrapper of lapply by default returning a vector, matrix or, if simplify = "array", an array if appropriate, by applying simplify2array(). sapply(x, f, simplify = FALSE, USE.NAMES = FALSE) is the same as lapply(x, f)." == "sapply(x, f, simplify = FALSE, USE.NAMES = FALSE) is the same as lapply(x, f)"

[crispyambulance]

It could be A LOT more clear. The first sentence is, of course, obvious to everyone and probably already known by people searching for help on sapply.

If you have a family of functions that "sort-of" do similar things, the most critical thing to communicate is some clear sense of when to use one or another of the functions. This doc degenerates into unhelpful jibberish instead.

Perhaps a close reading of it would have helped the OP, but there is a unnecessarily high cost in frustration.