The R Book

Running R

To run R, just click on the R icon. If there is no icon, go to Programs, then to R, then click on the R icon. The first thing you see is the version number of R and the date of your version. It is a good idea to visit the CRAN site regularly to make sure that you have got the most up-to-date version of R. If you have an old version, it is best to uninstall your current version before downloading the new one.

The header explains that there is no warranty for this free software, and allows you to see the list of current contributors. Perhaps the most important information in the header is found under

citation()

which shows how to cite the R software in your written work. The R Development Core Team has done a huge amount of work and we, the R user community, should pay them due credit whenever we publish work that has used R.

Below the header you will see a blank line with a > symbol in the left hand margin. This is called the prompt and is R's way of saying ‘What now?’. This is where you type in your commands, as introduced on p. 9. When working, you will sometimes see + at the left-hand side of the screen instead of >. This means that the last command you typed is incomplete. The commonest cause of this is that you have forgotten one or more brackets. If you can see what is missing (e.g. a final right-hand bracket) then just type the missing character and press enter, at which point the command will execute. If you have made a mistake, then press the Esc key and the command ...