Basic R Features
Christopher Cameron, Adam Brazier, Linda Woodard (original author)
Cornell Center for Advanced Computing
Revisions: 10/2021, 5/2018, 7/2014 (original)
This topic is a brief introduction to R's features. It covers the basic syntax of the language and illustrates some of its data handling and statistical capabilities.
Objectives
After you complete this topic, you should be able to:
- Identify common data classes and objects in R
- Define the attributes of R objects
- Explain vectors, matrices, lists, and dataframes
- Provide examples of R syntax
- Import and export data
- Define functions
- Explain how to write functions
- Explain how to find and install contributed packages
Prerequisites
This material assumes no prior experience with R beyond the Getting started with R topic. The exercises and examples assume some familiarity with statistical analysis and working through the exercises on Stampede2 or Frontera requires a basic knowledge of Linux and the ability to access these systems via SSH.