cachematrix.R

## Put comments here that give an overall description of what your
## functions do

## makeCacheMatrix
# The first function, makeCacheMatrix, creates a special "matrix", which is really a 
# list containing a function to:
        # 1 set the value of the matrix
        # 2 get the value of the matrix
        # 3 set the value of the inverse of the matrix using the solve() function
        # 4 get the value of the inverse of the matrix

makeCacheMatrix <- function(x = matrix()) {
                m <- NULL
                set <- function(y) {
                        x <<- y
                        m <<- NULL
                }
                get <- function() x
                setinverse <- function(solve) m <<- solve #calculates the inverse of the matrix and caches the result
                getinverse <- function() m
                list(set = set, get = get,
                     setinverse = setinverse,
                     getinverse = getinverse)
}

## cacheSolve
# the following function calculates the inverse of the special "vector" created 
# with makeCacheMatrix. However, it first checks to see if the inverse has 
# already been calculated. If so, it gets the inverse from the cache and 
# skips the computation. Otherwise, it calculates the inverse of the data 
# and sets the value of the inverse in the cache via the Solve() function.

cacheSolve <- function(x, ...) {
        ## Return a matrix that is the inverse of 'x'
        m <- x$getinverse()
        if(!is.null(m)) {
                message("getting cached data")
                return(m)
        }
        data <- x$get()
        m <- solve(data, ...)
        x$setinverse(m)
        m
}


## THE FOLLOWING ARE A LIST OF COMMANDS TO TEST THESE FUNCTIONS

        #>setwd("")
        #>source("cacheMatrix.R")
        #>a <- makeCacheMatrix(matrix(rnorm(25),nrow = 5,ncol = 5))
        #>a$get()
        #>a$getinverse()
        #>cacheSolve(a)
        #>a$getinverse()  # this is only to show you that the mean has been stored and does not affect anything
        #>cacheSolve(a)