What is R
R
R is a programming language an software environment designed for working with data. You can use it to do things like organize data, perform calculations, make graphs and run statistical analyses. It lets you write code (small instructions) to work with data. Instead of clicking through menus (like you do in Excel or SPSS), in R you write commands to tell the computer exactly what you want to do.
R was created in the 1990s by two statisticians, Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman, at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. They named it “R” after the first letters of their names and also as a nod to the programming language S, which R was based on. Over time, R has evolved with contributions from thousands of users around the world, and today it is the go-to software program for statisticians and computational social scientists worldwide. Therefore, it is essential to have in your toolkit as an applied data scientist or researcher in the field of methodology and statistics.
You can use R to:
Work with data in tables or spreadsheets
Make plots and graphs
Do statistical tests and apply models
Clean, reshape and summarize data
Automate data tasks
You can read more about R at the FAQ
Base R
R comes with a set of basic tools which you can use to do math and statistics, create simple plots, read and write files and to write your own functions and programs. This set of basic tools is referred to as “Base R”. However, there are many more tools available through so-called “packages”. These are add-ons created by other users that let you do more advanced or specialized tasks.
The Base R Cheat Sheet is a useful resource for the basic commands in R.
CRAN
CRAN stands for the Comprehensive R Archive Network. It is the main place where R and R packages are stored and shared. You can think of CRAN as a giant online library for R:
It hosts the official version of R.
It contains thousands of packages developed by R users from all over the world.
Every package on CRAN is checked and tested, so you know that it is safe and works properly in R.
CRAN keeps documentation and example code for each package, which is helpful when you are learning how to use them.
Here is the link to CRAN.
R has a large update about once a year and minor updates 2 or 3 times per year. You can always find the latest version on the CRAN website.