diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7ef3ead157a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+.Rproj.user
+.Rhistory
+.RData
+.Ruserdata
+.positai
diff --git a/ProgrammingAssignment2.Rproj b/ProgrammingAssignment2.Rproj
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8e3c2ebc99e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ProgrammingAssignment2.Rproj
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+Version: 1.0
+
+RestoreWorkspace: Default
+SaveWorkspace: Default
+AlwaysSaveHistory: Default
+
+EnableCodeIndexing: Yes
+UseSpacesForTab: Yes
+NumSpacesForTab: 2
+Encoding: UTF-8
+
+RnwWeave: Sweave
+LaTeX: pdfLaTeX
diff --git a/cachematrix.R b/cachematrix.R
index a50be65aa44..360a138b5f5 100644
--- a/cachematrix.R
+++ b/cachematrix.R
@@ -1,15 +1,39 @@
-## Put comments here that give an overall description of what your
-## functions do
-
-## Write a short comment describing this function
+## This function creates a matrix that caches the value of its inverse
 
 makeCacheMatrix <- function(x = matrix()) {
+  matrix_inverse <- NULL #sets inverse to be null until calculated
+  
+  #to set the matrix
+  set <- function(y) {
+    x <<- y
+    matrix_inverse <<- NULL
+  }
+  #to get the matrix inverse from this function
+  get <- function() x
+  setmatrix <- function(solve) matrix_inverse <<- solve
+  getmatrix <- function() matrix_inverse
+  list(set = set, get = get,
+       setmatrix = setmatrix,
+       getmatrix = getmatrix)
 
 }
 
 
-## Write a short comment describing this function
+## to solve for the inverse, and retrieve cached inverse from 'makeCacheMatrix()' when called if it has already been calculated
 
 cacheSolve <- function(x, ...) {
-        ## Return a matrix that is the inverse of 'x'
+  matrix_inverse <- x$getmatrix() #to get the matrix inverse from the first function
+  if(!is.null(matrix_inverse)) {
+    message("getting cached data") #to print this message when retrieving cached data if already calculated
+    return(matrix_inverse) #retrieve cached data if already calculated
+  }
+  data <- x$get() #to get initialized matrix
+  matrix_inverse <- solve(data, ...) #solve for inverse
+  x$setmatrix(matrix_inverse) #set inverse as new output value
+  matrix_inverse #return the inverse
 }
+
+my_matrix <- makeCacheMatrix(matrix(c(1, 2, 3, 4), nrow = 2, ncol = 2)) #to initialize matrix for testing
+cacheSolve(my_matrix) #first function run to calculate matrix inverse
+cacheSolve(my_matrix) #to see if inversion was gotten from cache this time and not recalculated
+my_matrix$getmatrix() #to see if cache was stored in 'getmatrix()'