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Learn R

R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics.
http://www.r-project.org/
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For more information, please contact Paul Geissler (Paul_Geissler@usgs.gov).

Topic 2: R Commander Menus

This session assumes that you have installed R and the Rcmdr and DAAG packages as described in topic 1. If you have edited Rprofile.site, R Commander should start when you open R.

This topic will provide a quick overview of what is available from the R Commander menus, without going into the details, which will be covered in other topics.

Menus are convenient, but to get the most out of R and to deal with real world complications, you will need to learn the R language for any non-standard analyses. Menus only cover a small fraction of the statistics and graphics available in R.

I will use R Commander by John Fox as the R interface. See http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Getting-Started-with-the-Rcmdr.pdf , http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/ and http://www.jstatsoft.org/v14/i09/paper

There is a seprate page with a list of the links to definitions on these pages.

Menus: Edit | Data | Statistics |Models | Distributions | Graphs

Edit Menu

The edit menu has the options you would expect.

Data Menu

New data set asks for the name of the dataset and then brings up a spreadsheet like R data editor in the R console for entering data

You can click on a variable name to bring up a box, where you can change the variable name and specify either numeric or charactor. Press Enter to save the change. Close the window to save the data.

Import Data

from a text file, clipboard, or URL

Importing data from http://www.bio.ic.ac.uk/research/mjcraw/therbook/data/light.txt

from Excel, Access, or dBase data set
simply select the file you want to import.

Data in packages

Active Data Set set the default data set to be used with other menus.

Manage variable in active data set

The active data set is shown in blue. You can click on it to change the active data set.
You can click on "Edit data set" or "View data set" to load the R data editor in the R console. With "view data", it is read only.

This topic continues on another page.