Getting Started With R Programming

In this series of blogs, we are going to learn about the basics of R programming. Before starting, it is necessary to setup the environment for it.

For those who are new to programming, Environment is nothing but the medium with which we code. It consist of the editor, files, applications  which are necessary to do the coding as well as execution part.

Now, In this particular blog we are going to setup the environment for R Programming. But first we must know what is R Programming.

What Is R Programming?

R is a programming language and software environment for statistical analysis, graphics representation and reporting.

R is world’s most widely used statistics programming language. It’s the # 1 choice of data scientists and supported by a vibrant and talented community of contributors

Getting Started With R Programming – Environment Setup and Installation:

First of all you need to create and setup environment for development of R programming. For this to be done, go to the website https://cran.r-project.org/

Here you can select and download the version of R based on your operating system.

After clicking on any of the link, you will get the option to download the base for R.

Once you finished with downloading, install the package.

Installing the package gives you a console for development. But it is not enough as it is a console, it does not have any UI and it can make you go away from learning R Programming.

R Console

It’s not very convenient, not very nice to work in console. Hence, we will install an IDE for it. R Studio is the best option that we have for development in R programming. We can get the IDE from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/ this link.

Once you finished with downloading the RStudio, Install the software.

The R Studio looks like this:

One more important thing is to set up how your R Studio IDE looks. For some people, the IDE needs to be dark, for some, it needs to be the default.

To make changes in your R Studio IDE, follow the steps given below,

1. Go to Tools.
2. You will see the menu named “Global options…”
3. Click on it.
4. A new window will appear. It contains all the customization options that you might not need all the way except some options.
5. Click on Appearance. Here you can change the look and feel (Theme, Font size, Editor theme etc.)
6. Select the options as per your need and comfort.
7. I have selected the R Studio theme as Modern. My font is Lucida Console with size 10 font and Editor theme in  Tomorrow Night Blue.
8. Below is the sample screen.

Now, we are all set with our IDE and finally we can start creating the first R program.

Click here to read about data types in R Programming.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Keep coding.