UCI Libraries Digital Scholarship Services

Tuesday November 19, 2019 & Thursday November 21, 2019

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Instructor(s): Danielle Kane Helper(s): Mitchell Brown

REGISTER HERE

Please Note: You must be a UCI affiliate to register, please contact kaned@uci.edu if you are not a member of the UCI community to see if there is room before registering

General Information: R is a programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis.

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers, including undergrads, faculty, staff and community members. You don’t need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: Langson Library Rm 228. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: November 19, 2019 & November 21, 2019. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organisers have checked that:

The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
Accessible restrooms are available.

Materials will be provided in at the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email Danielle Kane at kaned@uci.edu for more information.

Syllabus: Programming with R

1. Working with vectors and data frames
2. Reading and plotting data
3. Creating and using functions
4. Loops and conditionals
5. Using R from the command line

Setup

You will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly. Download the Git for Windows installer.

Run the installer and follow the steps bellow:
    Click on "Next".
    Click on "Next".
    Keep "Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt" selected and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
    Click on "Next".
    Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected and click on "Next".
    Keep "Use Windows' default console window" selected and click on "Next".
    Click on "Install".
    Click on "Finish".
If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

    setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"
    Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

Mac OS X: The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is Bash, so no need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.

Linux: The default shell is usually Bash, but if your machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash. There is no need to install anything.

R

R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio.

Windows

Video Tutorial

Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE. Note that if you have separate user and admin accounts, you should run the installers as administrator (right-click on .exe file and select "Run as administrator" instead of double-clicking). Otherwise problems may occur later, for example when installing R packages.

macOS

Video Tutorial

Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.

Linux

You can download the binary files for your distribution from CRAN. Or you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install r-base and for Fedora run sudo dnf install R). Also, please install the RStudio IDE.