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Introduction to Data Analysis Using R 35 Min Lecture

The document is an introduction to data analysis in R, presented by Dr. Derek Wakefield for the APSA Committee on the Status of Graduate Students. It covers the installation of R and RStudio, basic R concepts, commands, data visualization, and provides examples of using datasets like 'mtcars' and 'cars'. Additionally, it includes homework assignments and encourages collaboration among students to explore the datasets further.

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4 views17 pages

Introduction to Data Analysis Using R 35 Min Lecture

The document is an introduction to data analysis in R, presented by Dr. Derek Wakefield for the APSA Committee on the Status of Graduate Students. It covers the installation of R and RStudio, basic R concepts, commands, data visualization, and provides examples of using datasets like 'mtcars' and 'cars'. Additionally, it includes homework assignments and encourages collaboration among students to explore the datasets further.

Uploaded by

dula
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to Data

Analysis in R
Presented for the APSA Committee on
the Status of Graduate Students

Dr. Derek Wakefield


Postdoctoral Fellow
Political Science, Emory University
Installing R and RStudio
• If you have not already, install R and
RStudio on your computer

• https://posit.co/download/rstudio-deskt
op/
• Choose any mirror, closer ones will be
faster
Basic R Concepts
• There are multiple windows open in the editor—let’s go
over each one

• Active code
• Data objects
• Console and terminal
• Packages, plot viewer, and ?help
Basic R Concepts (continued)
• Look at top toolbar
• Change visual look of editor
• Change working directory

• Make a new R Notebook file and save it under a new


name
• Need to begin every “chunk” with ```{r [put title here]} and
end with ```
• R Notebook is my preferred method of coding because it
creates distinct chunks and puts code output beneath each
chunk
Basic R Concepts (continued)
• At the start of every coding task, you will do the following:

• Identify, install, and load packages


• Use bottom-right pane to find packages, or use install.packages()
• Library(rmarkdown)
• Library(tidyverse)
• Set working directory, store and load data
• Create new folder, keeps things cleaner (also look into R
Projects)
• Diagnose and clean issues with data before any analysis
Basic Commands in R
• R can do basic arithmetic with standard computer-math
• Addition: 1+1
• Subtraction: 2-1
• Multiplication: 3*2
• Division: 4/2
• Exponents: ^
• Square root: sqrt(vector)
• Mean: mean(vector)
• Sum: sum(vector)
• R uses PEMDAS in order of operations
• What would this be: (4 + 6) / (2 * (4 – 2))^2
Basic Commands in R
(continued)
• R uses data objects as the primary form of storing data

• Create a new single-object data by using <- (or =)


• smol_data <- 7
• The object being created or edited is always on the left, and
the data that is being stored comes from the right side
• Look in the data pane and you will now have a smol_data
object there
• Type view(smol_data)
Basic Commands in R
(continued)
• You can then manipulate the data…
• Try adding 1 to the data
• Try exponentiating the data by ½

• You can make “vectors” which are longer lists of


variables using the c() command
• Vector1 <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• Vector2 <- c(4,8,10)
• You can create a bigger “dataframe” (we will discuss
something called `tibbles` in the future as well)
• big_df <- data.frame(smol_data, Vector1, Vector2)
• Why doesn’t this work, but only including smol_data and
Vector1 works?
Basic Commands in R
(continued)
• If you have questions about a given package, you can use ?
followed by the package name to open a help panel

• First, create a new data object using the “cars” dataset


• cars_df <- cars
• Try using ?cars (a dataset that comes automatically with R)

• What is this dataset?


• What variables are stored?
• How large is the dataset? How many
variables/observations?
The Data Viewer Panel
• Let’s click on the cars_df dataframe and view what it is
• This is not advisable for large datasets, which means 100+
variables and 10,000+ observations. In that case, use
glimpse()

• Can manipulate column orders

• Can view the list of variables and identify obvious issues


Visualizing Data in R
• Let’s load another dataset: mtcars
• New_table <- mtcars

• Let’s make sure the Rmarkdown package is loaded


• Library(rmarkdown)
• Library(tidyverse)

• Create a nicer-looking output:


• paged_tables(cars_df)
• glimpse(cars_df)
Visualizing Data in R
• Let’s try a basic plot with base R
• Plot( data = mtcars, cyl ~ mpg)

• 99% of the time, I’m using ggplot (from tidyverse) for these
tasks
• Ggplot(data = [dataframe_name], aes(x = variable1, y =
variable2)) +
• Geom_bar() + (or Geom_point, Geom_line, geom_raster)
• title() + … etc etc.

• GGPlot functions by adding “layers” cumulatively that inform R


how to use the given variables
• We will learn much more at the end of the class on this
Visualizing Data in R
• Dipping our toes into dplyr a bit… using the group_by
and reframe commands to create “diagnostic tables”

• diag_df <- mtcars %>%


• group_by(cyl) %>%
• reframe(count = n () )

• This will take the mtcars dataframe, group by cyl, and


get the average mpg for each cyl group.
• Try it with the HP variable
Visualizing Data in R
• Lastly, the way that we determine relationships
between variables is through linear regressions

• The basic command for a linear model in R is lm()

• Lm(data = mtcars, hp ~ cyl) estimates the


relationship between the number of cylinders in a car,
and its horsepower, across the full dataset

• We will learn more about this process in a future lecture


Answering Questions about
mtcars
• Use the tools we have learned today and work with your
nearby classmates to answer the following questions
about the mtcars dataset:
• 1. How many individual car types are in the dataset?
• 2. What is the lowest value for mpg?
• 3. What is the median value for wt?
• 4. What are the options for the numbers of cyl?
• 5. Which of the variables are binary (only 0 or 1)?
• 6. What is the relationship between mpg and cyl? Is it
significant?
• Please raise your hand if you need help
Some last RMarkdown thoughts
• RMarkdown can be used as a way to present your final
results, although I tend to use R Notebooks and LaTeX

• These documents have to “knit” which means the entire


document needs to run, which can sometimes be more
difficult than having individual chunks that create
usable outputs

• You can learn more in the RMarkdown documentation (?


RMarkdown)
Your (Easy) Homework
• Look at the “dataset of datasets” and begin thinking
about which of the final project options you want to take
• Under Course Modules, see “Important Links” document

• Anybody looking to do a solo-author original project (grad


student 3rd year paper, undergraduate honors thesis)

• Anybody looking to do a co-authored original project?

• Anybody looking to do a replication project?

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