Installing R and RStudio

To get started with R, yous need to learn your ain copy. This appendix volition evidence you how to download R as well as RStudio, a software application that makes R easier to use. You'll go from downloading R to opening your first R session.

Both R and RStudio are costless and easy to download.

How to Download and Install R

R is maintained by an international team of developers who brand the linguistic communication available through the spider web page of The Comprehensive R Annal Network. The tiptop of the web page provides three links for downloading R. Follow the link that describes your operating system: Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Windows

To install R on Windows, click the "Download R for Windows" link. And so click the "base of operations" link. Next, click the first link at the height of the new page. This link should say something like "Download R three.0.three for Windows," except the 3.0.3 will be replaced past the most current version of R. The link downloads an installer program, which installs the almost up-to-date version of R for Windows. Run this plan and footstep through the installation wizard that appears. The sorcerer will install R into your program files folders and identify a shortcut in your Start bill of fare. Note that you'll demand to have all of the appropriate administration privileges to install new software on your machine.

Mac

To install R on a Mac, click the "Download R for Mac" link. Next, click on the R-3.0.three package link (or the packet link for the most current release of R). An installer will download to guide you through the installation process, which is very easy. The installer lets you customize your installation, only the defaults will be suitable for nigh users. I've never plant a reason to alter them. If your computer requires a password before installing new progams, yous'll demand it here.

Binaries Versus Source

R can be installed from precompiled binaries or built from source on whatever operating organization. For Windows and Mac machines, installing R from binaries is extremely easy. The binary comes preloaded in its ain installer. Although yous tin can build R from source on these platforms, the process is much more than complicated and won't provide much benefit for nigh users. For Linux systems, the opposite is true. Precompiled binaries can exist institute for some systems, but it is much more common to build R from source files when installing on Linux. The download pages on CRAN's website provide information about building R from source for the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.

Linux

R comes preinstalled on many Linux systems, but y'all'll want the newest version of R if yours is out of date. The CRAN website provides files to build R from source on Debian, Redhat, SUSE, and Ubuntu systems nether the link "Download R for Linux." Click the link and then follow the directory trail to the version of Linux you wish to install on. The exact installation procedure will vary depending on the Linux system you use. CRAN guides the process by grouping each set of source files with documentation or README files that explicate how to install on your organization.

32-bit Versus 64-bit

R comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Which should y'all use? In most cases, information technology won't matter. Both versions employ 32-flake integers, which ways they compute numbers to the same numerical precision. The difference occurs in the way each version manages memory. 64-bit R uses 64-chip memory pointers, and 32-fleck R uses 32-scrap retention pointers. This means 64-chip R has a larger memory space to utilize (and search through).

Every bit a dominion of thumb, 32-bit builds of R are faster than 64-bit builds, though not always. On the other hand, 64-bit builds tin can handle larger files and data sets with fewer memory management problems. In either version, the maximum allowable vector size tops out at around two billion elements. If your operating system doesn't back up 64-flake programs, or your RAM is less than iv GB, 32-bit R is for yous. The Windows and Mac installers will automatically install both versions if your organization supports 64-scrap R.

Using R

R isn't a program that you can open and start using, like Microsoft Give-and-take or Internet Explorer. Instead, R is a computer linguistic communication, similar C, C++, or UNIX. Yous use R by writing commands in the R language and asking your computer to interpret them. In the quondam days, people ran R code in a UNIX terminal window—as if they were hackers in a movie from the 1980s. Now well-nigh everyone uses R with an application called RStudio, and I recommend that y'all exercise, too.

R and UNIX

You can nonetheless run R in a UNIX or BASH window by typing the command:

              R

which opens an R interpreter. You tin can then practise your work and shut the interpreter by running q() when you are finished.

RStudio

RStudio is an application like Microsoft Word—except that instead of helping you lot write in English, RStudio helps you write in R. I utilize RStudio throughout the book because it makes using R much easier. Also, the RStudio interface looks the same for Windows, Mac Bone, and Linux. That will help me match the book to your personal experience.

Y'all tin can download RStudio for costless. Just click the "Download RStudio" button and follow the simple instructions that follow. Once you've installed RStudio, y'all tin can open up it like whatsoever other program on your computer—unremarkably by clicking an icon on your desktop.

The R GUIs

Windows and Mac users unremarkably exercise not programme from a concluding window, so the Windows and Mac downloads for R come with a simple program that opens a terminal-similar window for you to run R code in. This is what opens when you click the R icon on your Windows or Mac computer. These programs practise a little more than the bones concluding window, simply non much. You may hear people refer to them every bit the Windows or Mac R GUIs.

When you open RStudio, a window appears with iii panes in it, equally in Effigy A.ane. The largest pane is a panel window. This is where you'll run your R code and meet results. The console window is exactly what you'd come across if you ran R from a UNIX panel or the Windows or Mac GUIs. Everything else you run into is unique to RStudio. Hidden in the other panes are a text editor, a graphics window, a debugger, a file manager, and much more. You'll learn about these panes as they get useful throughout the form of this volume.

The RStudio IDE for R.

Figure A.one: The RStudio IDE for R.

Do I nonetheless need to download R?

Fifty-fifty if yous use RStudio, you'll still need to download R to your computer. RStudio helps y'all use the version of R that lives on your estimator, just it doesn't come up with a version of R on its ain.

Opening R

Now that yous have both R and RStudio on your computer, you can begin using R by opening the RStudio program. Open up RStudio only equally you would any program, by clicking on its icon or by typing "RStudio" at the Windows Run prompt.