1.1 Overview

This book is a collection of training materials for an introduction to the R statistical computing programming language. Broken down into chapters, I’ve aimed to cover most of the basics.

The book is largely split into two sections. One section (“For Students”) that’s aimed at those that are entirely new to R. I explain the basics in a way that doesn’t require a background in data analysis or computing and you should have a decent understanding of the fundamentals of R if you manage to make it through.

In the second section (“For Teachers”), we look at some of the topics in greater detail, looking at the theory and specifics that underpin what we’ve learnt in the previous section. For those interested in teaching R to others, this section provides an introduction to the underlying workings of R that can be extremely helpful when questions from your students begin to arise. For example, we look at functions in both sections, however we cover the basics of what a function is and how to use one in the “For Students” section, and how to create functions in the “For Teachers” section.

I’m constantly looking to improve this book so feedback is very welcome. Anything from typos to content suggestions, feel free to raise a GitHub issue if you feel something should be changed.

1.1.1 Acknowledgements

This book was made possible with the help of those who raised issues and proposed pull requests. With thanks to: Swapnil Sengupta (@Swapnil-2001), @ARawles64