R is a scripting language used in statistical data manipulation and analysis, as well as a general-purpose programming language.
Designed in the early 1990s by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentlemen, colleagues at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, R was highly influenced by the S programming language, as well as Common Lisp, Scheme, and XLispStat. R is currently maintained by the R Development Core Team, a group of eighteen individuals who have the exclusive rights to alter the source code's central archive. John Chambers, who designed S, is a member of the development team.
Influenced, in large part, by the S statistical language, R is sometimes referred to as GNU S, as the language was created as an open-source language. R may be considered a public-domain implementation of S, and the R/S platform has become a de facto standard among professional statisticians.
R also incorporates features found in object-oriented and functional programming languages. R is a dynamic programming language, which means that R automatically interprets your code as you run it. If you type a command that R doesn't recognize, R will return an error message.
R is available for the Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms.
Although R programmers typically submit commands to R by typing in a terminal window rather than clicking a mouse in a GUI environment, this shouldn't be understood to imply that R doesn't do graphics.
Free GUIs have also been developed for R, including ESS, JGR, R Commander, RStudio, and StatET. Of these, RStudio, StatET, and ESS are open-source integrated development environments (IDEs). Microsoft Azure also offers a development environment for R. RStudio is the most popular IDE for R. However, the language and the IDE are separate. RStudio is a wrapper around the language that extends its functionality.
A core set of packages is included with the R installation package, and thousands of others are available through CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network), and other repositories.
Other R package resources include Crantastic, a community website that rates and reviews CRAN packages, as well as from R-Forge, which serves as a central platform for R package development, R-related software, and projects related to the language.
Implementations of R include CXXR, FastR, pqR, Renjin, Rho, and Riposte. Microsoft R Open is a fully compatible R distribution with modifications for multi-threaded computations.
The official gathering of R users is known as useR, the first of which was held in Austria in 2004, and has become an annual event, meeting in various places around the world, since 2006, alternating between Europe and North America.
The R Journal is an open-access, refereed journal for R projects.
Topics related to the R scripting or programming language are the focus of resources found in this category. The language itself, as well as its implementations, IDEs, and any other tools developed for R programming, are appropriate for this category, as are R user groups, forums, tutorials, guides, and other content.
Recommended Resources
Founded by Harvard and MIT, the online educational program is non-profit and open-source, offering career and business training, as well as Open edX, its freely available online courses, such as its courses in R programming, which include a HarvardX Data Science: R Basics course, a Microsoft Introduction to R for Data Science course, and GTx FA19: Computing for Data Analysis, and others, which are highlighted here, some free, others with payment of tuition.
https://www.edx.org/learn/r-programming
Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) is an add-on package for GNU Emacs that is designed to support the editing of scripts and interaction with various statistical analysis programs, such as R, S-Plus, SAS, Stata, and OpenBUGS/JAGS. Its purpose and features are highlighted, and the package is freely available under the GNU General Public License. The latest released version is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, as well as the current developmental version with documentation and support services.
http://ess.r-project.org/
Microsoft R Application Network
MRAN includes the R programming language, Microsoft R Open, R Packages, R Tools, and the R Community. Microsoft R Open is the enhanced distribution of R from Microsoft Corporation, which is available for download from its site, along with R packages that extend the language with new functions and data, and MRAN also hosts daily snapshots of the CRAN R packages and releases. Installation instructions and license data are posted.
https://mran.microsoft.com/
Developed by RStudio, Inc., RStudio is an IDE for the R programming language available in two formats, RStudio Desktop, a desktop application, and RStudio Server, which allows access through a web browser while it is running on a remote Linux server. The RStudio IDE is available with the GNU open-source Affero General Public License. RStudio also offers several other R packages, which are highlighted here, as well as RStudio Team Standard and Standard, which are commercial products.
https://rstudio.com/
The Comprehensive R Archive Network
CRAN is a precompiled binary distribution of the base system and contributed packages, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, although R is part of many Linux distributions. CRAN represents a network of FTP and web servers around the world that store identical, up-to-date versions of code and documentation for R. Mirror sites are listed, and its policies for submitting a package to the network are presented.
https://cran.r-project.org/
The R Graph Gallery displays about four hundred charts, all created with the R programming language, and each providing reproducible code and explanations. Organized by family and types, for each chart, the focus is on the code, although a link is provided gibbing more information about the theory. Charts may be suggested, and any bugs may be reported to the author, who maintains this site as a side project.
https://www.r-graph-gallery.com/
The R Project for Statistical Computing
R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The programming language compiles and runs on a variety of Unix-type platforms, macOS, and Windows, and may be downloaded from any CRAN mirror, which is listed here. Development and release notes are posted to the site, along with an overview of the language, developer pages, manuals, other documentation, and links to other R resources.
https://www.r-project.org/
Tutorials Point boasts several tutorials and informational articles on topics such as programming languages, web design, and others. Its tutorial on the R programming language is designed for software programmers, statisticians, and data miners who want to develop statistical software through R programming. A basic understanding of computer programming terminology is helpful. The tutorial is sorted by chapters and includes code examples.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/r/
Udemy offers online training in a variety of technical and other topics for individual and employee training, offering certificates of completion as well as lifetime access to course materials for those completing the programs. Learning the R programming language from a Udemy instructor can help an individual to find a place in machine learning and data analysis industries. Available courses, fees, and requirements are stated.
https://www.udemy.com/topic/r-programming-language/
Offering online software training lessons 24/7, the tutorials offered by W3 Schools include a large number of online examples. It R programming language tutorial is designed for those who have a good understanding of other programming languages. An overview of the language and its features is put forth, along with installation instructions and lessons on language syntax, data types, variables, lists, arrays, and other coding questions.
https://www.w3schools.in/r/
Headquartered in Germany, WalWare produces StatET, an Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) for the R programming language, offering a set of tools for coding and package building, including a fully integrated R console, object browser, and R help system, supporting multiple local and remote installations of the language. Its features and advanced tools are highlighted. Also available is RJ and RServi, an open-source library.
http://www.walware.de/
