Data Mashups in R

Final Thoughts

R users rely on packages to do complex tasks without heavy scripting. Using these packages effectively usually requires some trial-and-error, but R package usage patterns will typically resemble what has been covered in this tutorial. In addition to reviewing the internal help and examples, it is good practice to closely examine each package’s data structures using str(). The interactive nature of R allows a beginner to attempt to solve complex problems by trying different strategies in real-time without the hassles of compilation. A spatial mashup cannot cover R’s extensive statistical capabilities, but hopefully this tutorial will spark some interest in programmers who want to incorporate statistical analysis into their data pipelines.