Access to R and RStudio

Data science involves extensive data handling, data analysis and coding. The main programming environments that data scientists are expected to know are Python and R. Both are excellent but have their limitations as well as advantages. Throughout this short course, we’ll be using R. 

Although some people use R directly, the vast majority of users access R through the graphical user interface of RStudio. In many situations, R and RStudio are synonymous. Most of the time, in this course, we will use RStudio.

RStudio is great to use as it is open-source, free and available on all commonly used systems, such as Windows, Mac or Linux. It has in-built functions for doing most standard statistical work and there is an enormous number of free add-on packages to do lots of other things, such as neural networks and machine learning. Also, there is a supportive network of developers and users, and endless online tutorials and guides.

There are many ways to access RStudio for free so that you can try out the activities in the course. Some people use a cloud version called Posit Cloud (previously called RStudio Cloud), and some people download a free copy of R and RStudio from the Posit website (refer to the See also section below). Later in the course, there are instructions on how to install R and RStudio from the R Project website and the RStudio website (refer to the ‘See also’ section below), following the instructions for your OS.