R Studio guide

What is R?

R is a popular, general-purpose programming language that is used in many disciplines, including social, physical, health, and financial sciences.  R is open-source and offers a robust set of tools for conducting several types of analyses, research, and data organization.

WHY use R?

 R is a relatively easy-to-read and understandable programming language with the ability to expand its functionality.  Additionally, there is a large community of software developers using R and there is a large number of freely available packages, add-ons, and environments that we can benefit from.

HOW is R used for data analysis?

• Data Manipulation and Management
• Statistical Modeling
• Machine Learning & Data Science
• Data Collection (APIs, Web Scraping)

To begin using R, you will need to download and install R and RStudio.  Both of these tools are 100% free. 

First, you need to download and install the R programming language itself.  You can download R directly from the following website:

• The R Project for Statistical Computing: https://www.r-project.org/

Second, most R users will want to download and install RStudio.  RStudio is an application that provides a relatively use-friendly interface for working with R code, data, and analyses.  After you have installed R, you can download and install RStudio from the following website:

• RStudio CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) from Case Western University: https://cran.case.edu/