Statistical & Qualitative Data Analysis Software: About R and RStudio

What is R?

R is a free, open source software program for statistical analysis, based on the S language.

What is RStudio?

RStudio is a free, open source IDE (integrated development environment) for R. (You must install R before you can install RStudio.) Its interface is organized so that the user can clearly view graphs, data tables, R code, and output all at the same time. It also offers an Import-Wizard-like feature that allows users to import CSV, Excel, SAS (*.sas7bdat), SPSS (*.sav), and Stata (*.dta) files into R without having to write the code to do so.

Why use R?

• Free and open source.
• Available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
• Publication-quality graphs.
• Rivals (and in many cases, exceeds) SAS and Stata in terms of availability of advanced statistical methods and algorithms, through availability of user-created packages.
• Packages for literate statistical programming - weaving written reports and analysis code in one document.

What file types are typically associated with R?

• *.r - An R script.
• *.rmd - An R Markdown file.
• *.rnw - An R Sweave file.
• *.rds - A file containing a [single] R object; can be created using saveRDS(), and loaded using readRDS().
• *.rdata - A file containing one or more R objects or workspaces; can be created using save(), and loaded using load().

R and RStudio are free and open-source. To install them on any computer, download the software from their respective websites.

Cheat Sheets

Recommended Tutorials

Recommended Courses

Recommended Books

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