Installing and Using R

First, you will need access to R. There are two ways you can do this.

• If you want it installed on your computer, download and install the R statistical programming language: https://www.r-project.org.
• If you want to use it in the cloud, you can get a free account using Posit: https://posit.cloud/
  • This is also the preferred solution with Macs, since some Macs make installing this difficult.

The cloud version also includes an interface called RStudio that makes it easier to write code in R. You can also get it for your computer if you like. It is optional, but does make things easier.

You can download RStudio here: https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/

The next step is to install "packages." These add functionality to R so you don't need to duplicate a lot of code.

If you are using RStudio or Posit Cloud, open RStudio. If you are just using R, open RGui. Install the following packages. It may ask you to select where it downloads from, just choose something geographically close to you for the fastest connection.

• devtools - you need this package to download the next package
  • Type this into the console:
    • install.packages("devtools")
    • require(devtools)
• lolcat - this package provides a numbe of helpful functions, especially if you are just learning statistics in R.
  • Type this into the console:
    • install_github("burrm/lolcat")

You are all set. You only have to do this once.