Beginning R: The Statistical Programming Language

Introduction

This book is about data analysis and the programming language called R. This is rapidly becoming the de facto standard among professionals, and is used in every conceivable discipline from science and medicine to business and engineering.

R is more than just a computer program; it is a statistical programming environment and language. R is free and open source and is therefore available to everyone with a computer. It is very powerful and flexible, but it is also unlike most of the computer programs you are likely used to. You have to type commands directly into the program to make it work for you. Because of this, and its complexity, R can be hard to get a grip on.

This book delves into the language of R and makes it accessible using simple data examples to explore its power and versatility. In learning how to “speak R,” you will unlock its potential and gain better insights into tackling even the most complex of data analysis tasks.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who needs to analyze any data, whatever their discipline or line of work. Whether you are in science, business, medicine, or engineering, you will have data to analyze and results to present. R is powerful and flexible and completely cross-platform. This means you can share data and results with anyone. R is backed by a huge project team, so being free does not mean being inferior!

If you are completely new to R, this book will enable you to get it and start to become familiar with it. There ...