Introduction
Although it seemed intimidating, I chose to start learning how to use the statistical program R, because it is free, has an active community, and because the output is easily customizable.
Basics
Programs:
- R or “base R” can be downloaded from r-project.org. On the R website it is described as “a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics”.
- Rstudio is a program that interprets and displays R output. It can be downloaded for free from rstudio.com. In this tutorial, analysis of data is done using Rstudio. (Note that in June 2022, Rstudio announced that the company is changing its name to Posit)
- Packages are a collection of functions that can be used in Rstudio. These can be installed in Rstudio by using the command “install.packages(“PACKAGE NAME”).
- Tidyverse is a collection of useful packages that allow easy data analysis, manipulation and visualization.
In addition to searching online for specific functions or trouble shooting, I have greatly benefited from:
- Course on R programming, provided by the University of Southern Denmark.
- R programing 101 Youtube Channel.
- data-to-viz.com.
- Twitter accounts: @Rbloggers, @tidyversetweets, @daily_r_sheets, @rstatstweet and many more.
Rstudio has also a help function.