Updating the code from README to use the solve() function

Author: juliakm

cachematrix.R

@@ -1,15 +1,38 @@
 ## Put comments here that give an overall description of what your
 ## functions do
 
-## Write a short comment describing this function
+## This function creates a special "matrix" object
+## that can cache its inverse.
 
 makeCacheMatrix <- function(x = matrix()) {
-
+    matrix <- NULL
+    set <- function(y) {
+        x <<- y ## search through parent environment first for a value for y and assign to x
+        inverse <<- NULL ## set the inverse to null, unless it already exists
+    }
+    get <- function() x
+    setinverse <- function(inverse) x <<- inverse #set the inverse value
+    getinverse <- function() x #get the inverse value
+    list(set = set, get = get,
+         setinverse = setinverse,
+         getinverse = getinverse)
+    }
 }
 
-
-## Write a short comment describing this function
-
+## This function computes the inverse of the special
+## "matrix" returned by `makeCacheMatrix` above. 
+## Computing the inverse of a square matrix can be done with the `solve`
+## function in R.
+## n is the inverted matrix
 cacheSolve <- function(x, ...) {
         ## Return a matrix that is the inverse of 'x'
-}
+    n <- x$getinverse()
+    if(!is.null(n)) {
+        message("getting cached data")
+        return(n) #return the cached inverted matrix if it already exists
+    }
+    data <- x$get() #if we don't have a in existing inverted matrix, create one
+    n <- solve(data, ...)
+    x$setinverse(n)
+    n
+}