Getting started in R

Author

Rineke Steenbergen

Basic functions in R

During this course we’ll be using the swirl software package for R in order to illustrate some key concepts. The swirl package turns the R console into an interactive learning environment. Using swirl will also give you the opportunity to be completely immersed in an authentic R programming environment. In this programming assignment, you’ll have the opportunity to practice some key concepts in R.

  • swirl requires R 3.0.2 or later. If you have an older version of R, please update before going any further. If you’re not sure what version of R you have, type R.version.string at the R prompt. You can download the latest version of R from https://www.r-project.org/.

Install swirl

Since swirl is an R package, you can easily install it by entering a single command from the R console:

  • install.packages(“swirl”)

If you’ve installed swirl in the past make sure you have version 2.2.21 or later. You can check this with:

  • packageVersion(“swirl”)

Load swirl

Every time you want to use swirl, you need to first load the package. From the R console:

  • library(swirl)

Type the following from the R prompt to install this course:

  • install_from_swirl(“R Programming”)

Type the following from the R console to start swirl:

  • swirl()

Then, follow the menus and select the R Programming course when given the option. You should complete the following lessons:

  1. Basic Building Blocks

  2. Workspace and Files

  3. Sequences of Numbers

  4. Vectors

  5. Missing Values

  6. Subsetting Vectors

  7. Matrices and Data Frames