cachematrix.R

## The first function makes a list with methods that set and get a matrix and its inverse in an intrinsic environment variable
## The second function is passed the list from the first and attempts to calculate and set its inverse.  If the inverse is already set, teh cached value is used

## makeCacheMatrix will create a matrix x, and expose three methods to set/get x and its inverse

makeCacheMatrix <- function(x = matrix()) {
    ## initialize inverse
    cachedInv <- NULL
    
    ## set x in parent env with the desired value, if inverse is already set, get rid of it!
    set <- function(userValue = matrix()) {
        x <<- userValue 
        cachedInv <<- NULL
    }

    get <- function() x

    ##set inverse variable in parent env to desired value and return the value as a convenience
    setInverse <- function(invVal) {
        cachedInv <<- invVal 
        return(cachedInv)
    }

    getInverse  <- function() cachedInv
    list(set=set, get=get, setInverse=setInverse, getInverse=getInverse)
}


## Given the list variable from the first function, will first check to see if there's already a cached inverse and return

cacheSolve <- function(x=makeCacheMatrix(1:4, nrow=2, ncol=2), ...) { 
    
    ## Checking exist
    calculatedInverse <- x$getInverse() 
    
    ##check if there's a cached value AND it's a matrix
    if(!is.null(calculatedInverse) && is.matrix(calculatedInverse)) { 
        message("We found cached data and saved valuable cpus!!!")
        return(calculatedInverse)
    }
    
    ## otherwise get the matrix
    matrixToSolve <- x$get()  
    
    ## try to solve the matrix and catch errors and warnings
    calculatedInverse <- tryCatch({ 
        solve(matrixToSolve)
    }, warning=function(w) {
        message("This may not be the result you're looking for")
        message(w)
    }, error=function(e) {
        message("Something went wrong solving your matrix")
        message(e)
        message("\n")
    })
    
    ## whatever the case, set the value of the inverse (NULL if something went wrong)
    message("Setting the value of inverse to:") 
    x$setInverse(calculatedInverse)
}