Chapter 1:

Introduction to R Programming
for Data Science
Introduction to R Language 1
Objectives
• Explain what R language is and the purpose of R
• Download and Install R
• Learn general Issues in R
• Introduce R-Packages

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 Introduction to
R Programming for Data Science

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 Introduction to
R Programming for Data Science

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 Introduction to
R Programming for Data Science

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What is R?
 Software for Statistical Data Analysis
 Based on S
 Programming Environment
 Interpreted Language
 Data Storage, Analysis, Graphing
 Free and Open Source Software

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Obtaining R
 Current Version: R-4.2.2
 Comprehensive R Archive Network:
http://cran.r-project.org
 Binary source codes
 Windows executables
 Compiled RPMs for Linux

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Installing R
 Binary (Windows/Linux): One step process
 Starting R

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General Issues in R
1. Unmatched parentheses, curly braces, square brackets or quotes

Solution
•Using RStudio a closing
parenthesis, curly brace, square
bracket or quotation mark will
automatically be written when
opening one
•Match all opening parentheses,
curly braces, square brackets and
quotation marks with their
closing counterparts

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General Issues in R
2. Using a function that is not installed or loaded

Solution
Install the package (if it is not installed yet) and load it with
the install.packages() and library() functions, respectively:

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General Issues in R
3. Typos in function, variable, dataset, object or package names

Solution
Make sure that
you correctly
spell all your
functions,
variables,
datasets, objects
and packages

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 General Issues in R
4. Missing, incorrect or misspelled arguments in functions
Most R functions require arguments

Solution
•Make sure to specify at least all compulsory arguments of the
function, and the correct ones
•If we do not know the arguments of a function, we can always check
the documentation with ?function_name or help(function_name)
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 General Issues in R
5. Wrong, inappropriate or inconsistent data types

Solution
Make sure to use the appropriate operation and type of analysis depending
on the variable(s) of interest. For example:
• for factor variables => compute frequencies and/or relative frequencies,
and draw barplots
• for quantitative continuous variables => compute the mean, median, etc.
and draw histograms, boxplots, etc.
• for logical variables, the mean, a frequency table and a barplot are
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 General Issues in R
6. Misunderstanding between = and ==
Assignment in R can be done in three ways, from the most to the
least common:
<-, =, assign()
The second method, that is =, should not be confused with ==

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 General Issues in R
7 . Undefined columns selected

R does not understand the column you want to use while

subsetting the dataset.
Solution
Dataframes in R have two dimensions: rows and columns and in that
particular order so row first, then column. R expects two dimensions
when you call dat[]
It expects the first and then the second dimension, separated by a
comma:

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 General Issues in R
8. Problem when importing or using the wrong data file

Solution
Specify the path to the folder where your dataset is located

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R-Packages
 R packages are a collection of R functions, complied code
and sample data. They are stored under a directory called
"library" in the R environment

 There are two types of packages:

 Packages included with the base installation: a set of packages are
installed by R during installation
 Packages not included with the base Installation: packages that you
must manually download and install.

Chapter1- Importing Datasets 18

 R-Packages
• When starting the R console, only the default packages are
available by default.
• Check Available R Packages
o Get library locations containing R packages

Chapter1- Importing Datasets 19

 R-Packages
• Check Available R Packages
o Get the list of all the packages installed

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 R-Packages
• Check Available R Packages
o Get all packages currently loaded in the R environment

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 R-Packages
• Install a New Package
o Packages are added when they are needed for some specific purpose
o There are two ways to add new R packages:
o Installing directly from the CRAN directory
o Downloading the package to the local system and installing it
manually.
o Install directly from CRAN

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 R-Packages
• Install package manually
Go to the link R Packages to download the package needed. Save the
package as a .zip file in a suitable location in the local system .

• Load Package to Library

Before a package can be used in the code, it must be loaded
to the current R environment

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 Summary
•
Explain what R language is and the purpose of R
• Download and Install R
• Introduce R-Packages
• General Issues in R

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Q&A

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