## MacOS Users may need to install the rstudioapi manually first
install.packages("rstudioapi")
## Run the command to install xcode-select
rstudioapi::terminalExecute(
command = "xcode-select --install"
)2 Installing R
Important Note Regarding Chromebooks
If you have a Chromebook rather than a Windows or Mac computer, these installation instructions will not work. While there are ways to install R, RStudio, and other software on Chromebooks the process for doing so is different depending on what version of ChromeOS you have and may not be supported on older models. If this problem applies to you, please make an appointment or come by during office hours as soon as possible so we can figure out what the appropriate steps to get everything up and running are.
The easiest way to install R is to go to this website and select the operating system you use.
For Mac users it is important to select the correct download for your chip. If you are unsure click on the Apple logo in the top left of your screen and then click about this Mac.
I would download the one that says arm64. If your chip says “intel something or other” then you would click on the one that says Intel Macs.
XQuartz for MacOS Users
If you downloaded either of the MacOS versions above, you also need to download and install XQuartz. This step is only for MacOS users.
For Windows please click on this link and then follow this link and download the appropriate version of the software for your operating system. To check whether you need the X64 version or the X86 version press the windows + x keys and then click on system. You are looking for something that looks like this
Then choose 64 or 86.
2.1 R Tools and XCode
Occasionally some of the packages we will use may not be available for your version of R. This is not a problem since many package writers have the code online and we need to download them. This does require we have some additional things on our computer.
Required Step
For some of the packages we will need we may need to have some additional things installed in order for it to work.
If you are on a Windows operating system, you will need to install Rtools 4.3 which can download by clicking on the hyperlink below. Rtools is required to install packages from source and, more importantly, anything that requires a C++ compiler.
Once again, during the installation process you can just leave things at their default settings, especially in the case of the installation directory since changing its default locations may result in errors during package compilation. After you have completed this step, you will need to install the required packages by running the code below in order to successfully render the Quarto document for problem set 0. If you encounter errors when rendering the document, please ensure you have these packages installed.
Required Step
For some of the packages we will need we may need to have some additional things installed in order for it to work. This is a required step for much of the code we will use throughout this course.
If you are on a MacOS operating system, you will need to install the Xcode developer tools. You can obtain the full MacOS development environment from the Apple AppStore using the link below. Xcode is required to install packages from source and, more importantly, anything that requires a C++ compiler, including though not limited to Stan.
However, since downloading this can be extremely time consuming given the large size of the full development tools suite an alternative option is to install a paired down version that provides the tools necessary for our purposes in this course without the overhead of the full Xcode development environment. You can install the paired down version of Xcode by running the code below in the RStudio console. Just copy and paste and hit enter.
2.2 Installing Rstudio
So now that we have installed R we should install Rstudio. Rstudio is simply a way to interact with R that is a lot more user friendly. You can google RStudio Desktop Download or you can simple click on this hyperlink and it will take you to the download page. Again just install the version of Rstudio that works with your operating system.
2.3 Navigating Rstudio
2.3.1 R? Rstudio? Whats the Difference?
- R is a statistical programming language
- RStudio is a convenient interface for R (an Integrated Developer Environment, IDE)
- At its simplest:
- R is like a car’s engine
- RStudio is like a car’s dashboard
The most common way that we interact with R is through Rstudio you can technically run R by just opening R and typing in code. But most people do not do this. It is not especially friendly to work in there is no syntax highlighting no code completetion. There isnt even really an option to add keyboard shortcuts. It is kind of like a Formula 1 car it can go real fast but it is not a comfortable drive.
Rstudio has lots of handy features that help you. Much like a car you and I would drive. If we didn’t have the dashboard but still had the engine and some wheels and a steering we could drive the car if needed. However a car with a dashboard lets us figure out what the car is doing more easily.
2.3.2 Navigating RStudio
When you open up Rstudio it should look something like this.
It is worth briefly walking through each pane. The code can go here part is called the console. If you just start typing R code and hit enter it will run. The imported data shows up here lets us peak at our Global Environment. This is where stuff we need/worked on shows up. Project files are here in the bottom right actually has a lot of panes there. The first one called files lets us peak at all the files in the folder that R is pointed at. The second pane packages lets us look at all the packages we have installed(more on this later). Plots lets us preview plots we have made.
Most of the time we don’t enter code directly into the console. If we just enter code into the console we do not have a record of what we did! This is a bad workflow for lots of reasons! At a minimum you are making your life a whole lot more difficult because you will have to redo everything every single time. That is way more work for yourself. If you click on the little white page at the top left you will see something that looks like this.
This is a fairly standard way to store your code! This is a record of everything you did which is really important because it saves you time. Just as importantly it lets your colleagues see what you did to the data. If we don’t know what you did than it is hard to know where things are going wrong or if what you did matches what you said.
If you opened an R script than it should look something like this. If you highlight the code and hit cmd + enter on a Mac or ctrl + enter if you are on a Windows then it will run the code for you!
Now that you have R Studio and R all set lets get started on the basics of R!