Learn the R Programming Language - Downloading Windows R Programming Language

Learning the R programming language will allow you to construct lightening fast statistical models. These statistical models once created, can be used to analyze stable and real time data sets so that decisions can be made that have more successful outcomes. Data scientists and statisticians use the R programming language for the analysis of real time social network data, weather data and microeconomics and macroeconomic data. And to build statistical models based on the interaction of these data.

Most that are new to r programming, learn to create simple statistical models. These models are used to create mathematical representations of statistical data. With R  you can generate best-fit models, for a wide variety of statistical distributions including the normal, binomial, Poisson distributions.  You can also create simple models that will predict expected outcomes and rates of return.

Dowloading the R Program

To begin R programming the first step is to download the r-programming language. If you have a windows machine, select the "Windows Download" button on the upper right hand corner of the windows download page at

R Programming Windows Download Link: http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/

After you have clicked the button (it is not necessary to read the instructions on that page) the download will begin automatically. A display dialog box will appear that includes the license agreement and configuration options.

For beginners, it is recommended that you accept all the default options (press next for each dialog box). After you have selected the "finish" button, the program will download to your machine.

If you have selected all the default options, the "R" icon will appear on your desktop. For this version it is a large blue R icon. On my machine the R programming version is R x64 3.0.2, for a 64-bit machine.

Click the "R" Icon on your desktop to start "R" to start the R Programming editor. The editor will display the license agreement and then a  command line prompt ">" as the position where to enter in your commands.

Making Simple Calculations with R

At this point, without even any knowledge of the R programming language, you can use the R program to work as a calculator. For example when you type in

>3*4

The compiler will return

[1] 12

Here 12 is the product of 3*4. The [1] signifies that  the result, 12, is the first element of the elements you requested.

R Help Menu

At this point, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Help menu options on the R programming toolbar. Selecting any of the elements in the help menu will direct you to different online documentation to help you understand how to use and program R.

The Most Helpful Help Option: Console

The first help menu option you want to become acquainted with is the "console" option. The console options in R let you edit code in the command line more efficiently. As well the console option commands will let you copy and paste the code and the code computations for use in text documents.

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At this point, you may want to review the R programming manual at http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/usingR.pdf.  The manual brings home the point that the windows editor will be used extensively to display and graph data.  And more often than not, you will need to read a data file with the R file commands to perform most R based analyses.