Intro to R prep - Software requirements

Before our first lab (Wed, Jan 10), you will need to:

  1. Install R
  2. Install RStudio
  3. Download class material from GitHub
  4. Install packages
  5. Sign-up for a free GitHub account
Note

All instructions below are demonstrated on this video.

The video is from last term, so some differences in website exist, but the main content of installing software remains the same.

1. Install R

Follow this link, and download it for your appropriate operating system (Linux, MacOS, or Windows).

Once downloaded, install R on your laptop.

2. Install RStudio

Once you have already installed R, follow this link, and download RStudio for your appropriate operating system.

If multiple download options appear, select “Free RStudio Desktop”.

Once downloaded, install RStudio on your laptop.

Note

You can run R without RStudio, but you cannot run RStudio without R.

R is the main software, RStudio is an extra software that makes our lives easier when working with R by providing an integrated development environment.

3. Download material from GitHub

We will use live coding for our meetings, meaning that we will develop the scripts together.

All materials, including

  • package installation script
  • initial partially-filled scripts (to use during a class period)
  • data sets
  • completely-filled scripts (only after a class period)

will be hosted on this GitHub repository.

To download the materials, click on the link above and follow the instructions.

4. Install packages

If you are not familiar with R lingo, you can think of a package as an app on your phone: a package will extend R functionality by making available to you extra software options that do not come pre-installed with R.

We will be using multiple packages that need to be installed, and doing so before the first lab period (Jan 10) will ensure that no one gets behind.

After installing R and RStudio, and downloading the material from GitHub, follow these steps:

  • Unzip the file downloaded from GitHub, move the unzipped folder to your desktop.

  • Open the main folder “2024_ppa”, and then open the sub-folder “01-packages”.

  • Double-click the R script file “before_installpackages.R” (this will open it in RStudio).

  • On the same RStudio window that just opened, install each package at a time by placing your cursor on the first script line and hitting Ctrl + return (Windows) or Command + return (Mac)

  • Some text will start appearing on the console as the packages get installed. If successfully installed, you should see a message similar to this:

“The downloaded binary packages are in /var/folders/88/ldswt2_n3lj26hwzphp9fmj00000gn/T//RtmpeRvdJ7/downloaded_packages”.

  • Keep running each line as described above until you reach the last package installation (script line 13)

To ensure that each package was installed, run the code starting with library("ggplot2"), line by line (from script lines 17 to 27).

If after running the library() function you get an error message like

Warning

Error in library(“packagename”) :**
**there is no package called packagename

This means the package was not properly installed and you may need help.

5. Sign-up for a free GitHub account

If you haven’t yet, please go to GitHub and sign-up for an account.

Once you have

  • Downloaded and installed R
  • Downloaded and installed RStudio
  • Downloaded material from GitHub
  • Installed needed R packages
  • Signed up for a GitHub account

Then you are ready for the class!

Warning

If you run into issues at any of the steps above, let me know, preferably before our class period.

We need to make sure everyone is ready to go at 9 am, we will have very limited time for troubleshooting technical issues during the class!