Introduction to R
R is an open source statistical package for statistical computing and graphics. It was developed at Bell Laboratories by John Chambers and colleagues. The package is based on S language and most of the codes in S language run in R. It is a GNU project and the package is freely available to download at http://www.r-project.org/index.html. R is well known for its powerful capabilities on producing publication quality graphs.
R is an integrated suite of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. It includes
- an effective data handling and storage facility,
- a suite of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular matrices,
- a large, coherent, integrated collection of intermediate tools for data analysis,
- graphical facilities for data analysis and display either on-screen or on hardcopy, and
- a well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.
R, like S, is designed around a true computer language, and it allows users to add additional functionality by defining new functions. Much of the system is itself written in the R dialect of S, which makes it easy for users to follow the algorithmic choices made. For computationally-intensive tasks, C, C++ and Fortran code can be linked and called at run time. Advanced users can write C code to manipulate R objects directly.
Source: www.r-project.org
Downloading R
To download R package, click here. There are three versions of R available to download. Click the one you needed. This tutorial explains the procedure to download R for Windows.
Click Windows
Click base
Click R-2.7.2-win32.exe
Run the program to install R in your system. You can also download R from the nearest mirror site to your area. Click here to find the nearest mirror.
