Welcome to Live – R for Data People Like You! In this session, we learn R from the basics through practical applications, so you can use it for data analysis. If you are interested in data, whatever your role or background, this course is for you.
Welcome and course overview
The host welcomes participants and introduces a friendly, collaborative session about using R in real work. Course students can download the accompanying materials from the link below the video. The session is intended for both enrolled students and followers joining the live stream.
The session covers five broad areas, from getting started with R through applying it to data analysis.
Why learn R?
R was designed for statistical and data analysis, with tools and functions that support this work.
A brief history of R
R began more than 30 years ago at a university in New Zealand, created by two statisticians.
R and Python
Both languages have strengths and trade-offs. R is particularly suited to data analysis and working with data frames. Python offers a wide range of libraries and tools for APIs and machine learning.
RStudio tools and setup
RStudio is a popular integrated development environment (IDE) for R. The session introduces RStudio Cloud, which lets users work with RStudio without installing the software, and explains how to create a new project and use cloud computing resources.
RStudio Cloud workspace
The session tours the main parts of the workspace:
- Console: enter R commands and view results.
- Script window: write R code and save files.
- Workspace settings: customize the display and theme, save files, run code, and add comments to make code easier to read.
Install R and RStudio Desktop
The session also covers downloading RStudio Desktop from the RStudio website and downloading R from CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network), followed by installing and setting up both programs on a computer.
Start writing R code
The introductory coding topics include:
- Creating variables and assigning or changing values
- Removing variables with
rm()and clearing them withrm(list = ls()) - Displaying values with
print() - Using F1 to open function help
Create and test functions
The session introduces reusable functions in R, including the function keyword, taking input, returning a value, testing a function, and setting a default value. It also walks through a simple “Hello” function example.
Use libraries and packages
Topics include installing packages, loading libraries, and calling functions they provide. The session uses the glue library to build a sentence, and demonstrates combining it with a Hello function and variables such as a person’s name and age.
Understand data types
The session introduces variables and data types in R, including how to use class() to check the type of a value.
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