Learning R

R is a great program but it has a relatively steep learning curve. To help you get started, I have three help sessions on R planned this week -- you need only attend one of the sessions.

I have four documents R_INTRO_PART_I, R_INTRO_PART_II, R_INTRO_PART_III, and R_INTRO_PART_IV in the Course Documents section that describe different aspects of R.

1. Manipulating vectors. A basic object in R is a vector. R_INTRO_PART_I discusses how to create and work on vectors.

2. Input and output. One typically wants to read datafiles into R -- read.table is useful for doing this. Data is typically stored in a R object called a data frame. Also you'll want to save R output including graphs and paste this material into a Word document.

3. Matrices. You should be comfortable working and manipulating matrices in R.

4. Plotting. You should be familiar with basic plotting commands and understand how one can add things (like labels and titles) to to graphs.

I hope you have R installed on your laptop. You may find it helpful to bring your laptop to the help session.