Getting started with R for complete beginners with no R or Splus experience

(1) If you need to install R go to the R website http://www.r-project.org/, and follow the links to download the R base package and install it. It will take only a few minutes if you have a fast internet connection.

For an overview of the R package and its survey functions and links to further sources of help click here.

If you have already used R go to next section 

This introduction uses the data from exemplar 1, but is relevant to any exemplar.

(2 ) Double click on the link to the R data set (e.g. ex1.Rdata) in the exemplar you want to try to start the R program. In a few seconds you will get a welcome screen with a message to tell you that you have opened an existing workspace and a red prompt where you can type commands.




(3) You are now in the R workspace for this project, and (although you might not know it) in this workspace you are surrounded by R objects and you can make and store new objects there too. Each object knows what its classes are. For example my name is of class character and TotalTable is both a table and an xtabs (crosstabs). TotalTable

To list all the objects in your local workspace try either of the two commands, ls( ) or objects( )

To view individual objects try just typing their names at the prompt, e.g.TotalTable (R is case sensitive)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as your own workspace, you have access to a whole set of other workspaces within the R package. To see what they are do search() at the R prompt (>). In one of these workspaces ( "package:datasets", number 7 in the search list) there is an object called attitudes. To view it type attitude by itself at the R prompt. To find out about it type help(attitude) and to get a graphical display of it type plot(attitude).

(4) GETTING HELP

Go to the help menu and click on html help. This will open a browser where there are links to various guides. These are NOT AS USEFUL as some of the contributed guides ones on the R web site http://www.r-project.org/). More useful is the index to packages. Follow links packages, and for the main R functions (base) and you will get help on all the base functions. You can minimise this until you need it.

(5) THE FAMILY RESOURCES SURVEY DATA

The family resources survey is in an object of class.data.frame in your local workspace called frs.
 To find out about it try:

> summary (frs) #Gives details of variables.
> dim (frs) #Gives its dimensions

To get number of rows and columns You should find that it has 7007 rows and 9 columns. To visualise some of the columns of the data try:

> plot(frs$HHINC)
 > hist(frs$HHINC)
> plot(frss$ADULTH,fam.resources$HHINC)

To look at individual rows of the data frame > frs[1:5,]
and to look individual columns of some rows
> frs[1:10,3:6]

(6) So for you have been typing commands at the R prompt (>) but you can also use a script file. Go to the PEAS web site and download the script file (.R extension) to your computer and then open it from the >> file >> open script menu. You can tile the two windows. Highlight the code from the script file and >>edit >>run selection or ^ctrl-R will run it for you,


(7) CONGRATULATIONS you are no longer a complete beginner and you are ready to try the survey package.

But first a few handy hints: TRY THEM NOW

  • To correct a mistake or get previous commands press the up arrow.

  • To make new R objects use the assign operator (<-)e.g.your.name <- "Iona Waterston"
  • If you get stuck in R at any time hit the ESC key

  • To exit R either click on the top right hand cross, or go to: file > exit.You will be prompted to save the workspace if you want to.

    • Using the R survey package for those with a little R or Splus knowledge

    If you are new to Splus or R go back to beginners section.


    (1 )OPEN THE R WORKSPACE IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE THIS ALREADY Double click on the link to the R data set (e.g. exp1.Rdata) in the exemplar you want to try.

    (2) DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE SURVEY PACKAGE (you need to be connected to the internet, but you will only need to do this once)
    Go to ->packages ->install package(s) from CRAN. You will get a list of packages, scroll down and click on survey (OK) and the package will install in your system. ALLOW R TO ACCESS THE OBJECTS IN THE SURVEY PACKAGE WORKSPACE (you will need to do this every time you want to use the survey package)
    type the command: library(survey)

    (4) DOCUMENTATION To get a list of all the survey functions and data sets and help on each one, go to the help menu ->html help->packages and find the survey package.

    (5) USING THE PRE_PREPARED CODE FOR EACH EXEMPLAR The commands for analysing each exemplar in R are in R source files. You should download the one you want and open it from >> file >> open script menu. You can tile the two windows. Highlight the code from the script file and >>edit >>run selection or ^ctrl-R will run it for you,

    (6) Follow the commands in the script file lines starting with # are comments.

    GOOD LUCK