01-lesson-01-r-for-newbies_slide.Rmd

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title: "Lesson 1: R for Newbies"
output:
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    center: true
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---

# Learning Objectives

##
- Discover what R is
- Understand the advantages of R
- Find your way around RStudio
- Get to know the basic R building blocks of R

# What is R?

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- R is a *free* software environment for statistical computing and graphics
- It works with a wide variety of platforms

# Why R?

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1. You can do **anything** in R.
2. R facilitates reproducible science
3. Long term gain from upfront investment

# RStudio - Making R a Breeze

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- RStudio helps you write in R by:
    + sending your written code to `R`
    + 'syntax-highlighting'
    + keeping a history of your actions
    + giving you tools to fix your code when it doesn't work (debugging)

# RStudio - Live Coding Session

##
![](img/r-studio-windows-vanilla.jpeg)

# R building blocks

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- The 3 main building block of R are:
    + names
    + data: vectors and data frames
    + functions

# Names

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- We use the `<- ` assignment operator to assign a name.

```{r names, echo=TRUE}
answer <- 42
msg <- "Hello World!"
answer
msg
```

# Data

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- Vectors
- Dataframes

# Functions

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- Functions are litte machines that perform specific tasks.

# Help Files

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- Help files tell you how functions work.
- Clear, but technical language