b 02) Downloading R

Nathan Brouwer

2019-10-10

The following introduction to R is based on the first part of “How to install R and a Brief Introduction to R” by Avril Coghlan. For additional information see “Getting R onto your compute”.

Introduction to R

R (www.r-project.org) is a commonly used free statistics software. R allows you to carry out statistical analyses in an interactive mode, as well as allowing simple programming.

Installing R

To use R, you first need to install the R program on your computer.

Installing R on a Windows PC

These instructions will focus on installing R on a Windows PC. However, I will also briefly mention how to install R on a Macintosh or Linux computer (see below).

These steps have not been checked as of 8/13/2019 so there may be small variations in what the prompts are. Installing are, however, is basically that same as any other program. Clicking “Yes” etc on everything should work.

Note that even if you have used R before its good to regularly update it to avoid conflicts with recently produced software.

New releases of R are made very regularly (approximately once a month), as R is actively being improved all the time. It is worthwhile installing new versions of R regularly, to make sure that you have a recent version of R (to ensure compatibility with all the latest versions of the R packages that you have downloaded).

To install R on your Windows computer, follow these steps:

  1. Go to https://cran.r-project.org/
  2. Under “Download and Install R”, click on the “Windows” link.
  3. Under “Subdirectories”, click on the “base” link.
  4. On the next page, you should see a link saying something like “Download R 3.6.1 for Windows” (or R X.X.X, where X.X.X gives the version of R). Click on this link.
  5. You may be asked if you want to save or run a file “R-x.x.x-win32.exe”. Choose “Save” and save the file on the Desktop. Then double-click on the icon for the file to run it.
  6. You will be asked what language to install it in - choose English.
  7. The R Setup Wizard will appear in a window. Click “Next” at the bottom of the R Setup wizard window.
  8. The next page says “Information” at the top. Click “Next” again.
  9. The next page says “Select Destination Location” at the top. By default, it will suggest to install R in “C:Files” on your computer.
  10. Click “Next” at the bottom of the R Setup wizard window.
  11. The next page says “Select components” at the top. Click “Next” again.
  12. The next page says “Startup options” at the top. Click “Next” again.
  13. The next page says “Select start menu folder” at the top. Click “Next” again.
  14. The next page says “Select additional tasks” at the top. Click “Next” again.
  15. R should now be installing. This will take about a minute. When R has finished, you will see “Completing the R for Windows Setup Wizard” appear. Click “Finish”.
  16. To start R, you can do one of the following steps:
  17. Check if there is an “R” icon on the desktop of the computer that you are using. If so, double-click on the “R” icon to start R. If you cannot find an “R” icon, try the next step instead.
  18. Click on the “Start” button at the bottom left of your computer screen, and then choose “All programs”, and start R by selecting “R” (or R X.X.X, where X.X.X gives the version of R) from the menu of programs.
  19. The R console (a rectangle) should pop up:

How to install R on non-Windows computers (eg. Macintosh or Linux computers)

These steps have not been checked as of 8/13/2019 so there may be small variations in what the prompts are. Installing are, however, is basically that same as any other program. Clicking “Yes” etc on everything should work.

The instructions above are for installing R on a Windows PC. If you want to install R on a computer that has a non-Windows operating system (for example, a Macintosh or computer running Linux, you should download the appropriate R installer for that operating system at https://cran.r-project.org/ and follow the R installation instructions for the appropriate operating system at https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#How-can-R-be-installed_003f .

Starting R

To start R, Check if there is an “R” icon on the desktop of the computer that you are using. If so, double-click on the “R” icon to start R. If you cannot find an “R” icon, try the next step instead.

You can also start R from the Start menu. Click on the “Start” button at the bottom left of your computer screen, and then choose “All programs”, and start R by selecting “R” (or R X.X.X, where X.X.X gives the version of R, eg. R 2.10.0) from the menu of programs.

Say “Hi” to R and take a quick look at how it looks. Now say “Goodbye”, because we will never actually do any work in this version of R; instead, we’ll use the RStudio IDE (intregrated development environment).