Learning R: A Step-by-Step Function Guide to Data Analysis

by Richard Cotton

Learn how to perform data analysis with the R language and software environment, even if you have little or no programming experience. With the tutorials in this hands-on guide, youâ??ll learn how to use the essential R tools you need to know to analyze data, including data types and programming concepts. The second half of Learning R shows you real data analysis in action by covering everything from importing data to publishing your results. Each chapter in the book includes a quiz on what youâ??ve learned, and concludes with exercises, most of which involve writing R code.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Nonfiction, Science, Coding, Computers, Computer Science

396 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2013

Reviews

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good, but even for a programming book it's quite dry. And it occassionally falls into the cardinal sin of giving you a block of code and saying 'this does that, but don't worry about how it works'. That's fine of course, for a single function, or something like that. But when it's a full five to ten lines of dense code, that's no fun at all.

However, it is quite thorough. I just wish there was more to consolidate the information, and that the presentation was a little more lively. There are a few exercises at the end of every chapter, but a few of the chapters are very long, so it's not always likely that the reader will get through the whole chapter in a single sitting. Although they're targeting somewhat different things, Hands-on Programming with R by Garrett Grolemund is a much gentler and more engaging guide to much of the same subject matter. But it's swings and roundabouts really, because Learning R is much more thorough and comprehensive.

[Marshall Layne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to R

This book is tremendous. It takes the reader through R without getting bogged down in an explanation of statistics and data modeling. It even includes chapters at the end on writing your own packages.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[hoffnarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice simple overview of basics

[Zoomikag · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is divided into two halves. The first half talks about the R programming language and introduces with its basics. Data structures, looping constructs, environment and packages comprises of the first half. Whereas the second half of the book focuses on the steps involved in data analysis like loading, cleaning and transforming data, exploratory analysis and visualizing, and modeling.

[Alvaro Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to R for beginners, if you want to learn R, start here!

[Goo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful when first learning the basics.

I would recommend skipping the second part and start learning tidyverse instead.