A very short introduction to R

1. A very shortintroduction to R Pia Wohland

2. R is… • A statistical software • Programming language • -Free! • -Very good in handling and manipulating data sets • -very comprehensive, easy to learn • -large community, with many contributors • -well supported mailing list • -additinal packages written by users • Works with command line • but some graphical user interfaces (GUI) available: • R-Commander, Rpad, SciViews-R • •Info on R • http://www.r-project.org/ • •Download software • http://cran.r-project.org/

3. Create your own functions See an example in the Practical this afternoon! Maps Graphics http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/ Manage your data Statistics

4. R under windows > Command prompt

5. You can type your commands directly at the command prompt (>) or you can use the Editor window. The advantage of the editor is, you can save your script straight away.

6. Help youRself.... > help() # opens help > help.start() # opens R-Documentation in a browser window > help(command) # shows help on “command” > ?command # shows help on “command” > library() # Shows which packages are loaded? > library(help="graphics") # Shows help for package “graphics” For example > ?plot

7. Package the command belongs to How to use What arguments, and their default settings

8. Links to related subject Always examples at the bottom

9. Essentials: R is case sensitive! (beware auto correction) Decimal separator `.´ not`,´ Character strings are placed in “ “ Where are my data? To find out in which directory R is working: getwd() To change the directory: setwd(“pathname”) Caution: setwd(“C:\\SummerSchoolPracticals“) setwd(“C:/SummerSchoolPracticals“) When importing your own data: best no spaces in header. 2,71828 2.71828