2.2 Should I use R?

People will forever argue about which is better, R or Python or Java or C or writing down mathematical equations on a piece of paper and handing it to a monkey to solve. I imagine you’re reading this because you heard that R was good for data analysis, and it absolutely is. And so is Python. They’re just… different. Personally, I prefer to use R but I understand that other people don’t.

Importantly though, never feel as though you’ve missed a trick by picking a particular language. Programming is not just a practice, it’s a way of thinking, and experience is almost always transferable across languages.

For reference however, here are a few of the things that you can use R for:

• data analysis
• statistics and machine learning
• reporting and writing technical documents
• web apps
• text analysis

If you’re interested in any of these, then you’re in the right place.