“If you want to learn to think you need a dialogue”
Immanuel Kant, 1786
September 10, 2025
Our tool
Plan for the next two hours
- Very brief introduction to R (5-10’)
- Very brief instructions on how to download/install R/RStudio (5’)
- Very brief basic demonstration of how to use R (console, editor, how to save work etc.) (10’)
- Demonstration of basic R and fundamental statistical skills (data exploration, manipulation, basic statistics, visuals) (30’)
- Real world example (by hand) (20-30’)
- Real world example (using Julius.ai) (20-30’)
- If there is time: Demonstration of RMarkdown as a. ‘Reproducible reporting’ tool, but also for slides
- Room for questions/requests
What’s R? Who wants R?
- A free statistics package, created by Ross Ihaka (Prof. at UoA) and Robert Gentleman in the early nineties
- Now covering everything from data processing to graphing
- Based on a command line interface
- R has become the data processing, analysis, plotting and programming tool in science
- Your (future?) employer may well ask for your R skills!
- Commercial users include Google, Pfizer, Shell, Bank of America… but also DOC, crown research institutes, councils…
- Enormous free online resources (helplists, code)
- Enormous AI capabilities
R-ticulate
Bit of publicity for our book…
Is it worth learning R? Can I use Excel?
- The short answer is: there is no way around R if you are working in the science/data space. Excel is great, but it is not a scientific tool
- R has become the ‘lingua franca’ among scientists
- My recommendation to use R is not commercially motivated (R is free)
- The fact that you don’t need to buy a license has made R so successful
What can R do?
The ‘Excel mess’
The ‘art of R’ - reproducible reporting!
RStudio
The R syntax
- …is intuitive, because your commands are interactive
[1] 5
[1] 3
Error in sqrt("Peter"): non-numeric argument to mathematical function
- …is intuitive, because the structure remains always the same:
function(argument1 = value1, argument2 = value2, ...)
Example: the function round, the first argument are the numbers you want to round, and the second argument the decimals you would like to retain (see lab!)
[1] 4.35
If you would like to get started at home
- Download and install R (google ‘R software’ > Download R for Windows/mac)
- Close R
- Download and install RStudio (google ‘Rstudio’)
- Open RStudio
- Go to file > new file > R Script
- Go to file > new file > R Markdown
- Start playing :)
The most commonly used functions
80/20 Rule: 102 functions likely handle 80% of common R tasks
Learning Priority: Master these functions before exploring specialized packages
Categories Matter: Functions cluster into logical groups for systematic learning
Data Structure (10 functions): Foundation for all R work
Statistics (10 functions): Core analytical capabilities
Data Transformation (8 functions): Essential for data wrangling
Visualization (8 functions): Critical for exploratory analysis
| Function | Purpose |
|---|---|
| c() | Combine values |
| data.frame() | Create data frame |
| list() | Create list |
| matrix() | Create matrix |
| array() | Create array |
| head() | Show first rows |
| tail() | Show last rows |
| str() | Display structure |
| summary() | Summary statistics |
| class() | Get object class |
| Category | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics | mean() | Calculate mean |
| Statistics | median() | Calculate median |
| Statistics | sd() | Standard deviation |
| Statistics | min() | Find minimum |
| Statistics | max() | Find maximum |
| Mathematics | abs() | Absolute value |
| Mathematics | sqrt() | Square root |
| Mathematics | exp() | Exponential |
| Mathematics | log() | Natural logarithm |
| Mathematics | round() | Round numbers |
| Category | Function | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Base Plotting | plot() | Scatter plots |
| Base Plotting | hist() | Histograms |
| Base Plotting | boxplot() | Box plots |
| Base Plotting | barplot() | Bar charts |
| Statistical Modeling | lm() | Linear models |
| Statistical Modeling | glm() | Generalized linear models |
| Statistical Modeling | t.test() | T-tests |