Chapter 1 Getting Started

What is R?

R is an environment designed for data manipulation, statistical computing and graphical display. It is by far the most popular programming language for statistics and particularly widely used in biology any many other fields.

In contrast to other statistical systems, a statistical analysis in R is usually done as a series of steps with intermediate results stored in objects. While maybe less convenient that on-click software (e.g. SPSS), it allows any analysis to be customized and scripted, and thus in turn to be automatized and reproduced.

Using R

R is an interpreted language, which means that instructions are executed directly at run time through a command-line interpreter. Or in plain English: R is mostly used via a console in which you can type commands that are then interpreted and executed.

A particularly convenient way to use R is through RStudio, a dedicated IDE (integrated development environment) made specifically for R. In this course, we will mostly use RStudio, but also discuss how to run R scripts from the command line towards the end.