This two-day course provides an introduction to the R programming language for statistics. The course uses the RStudio development environment and will focus on the practical operation of the software and obtaining useful output.

The first day covers the basics of R and how it operates, including the use of the huge range of add-in packages that R offers. You will learn how to get your data into R and perform simple data manipulation and transformations, how to obtain basic summary statistics, tables and charts and get to know how the R environment works. You will also see how the impressive graphics capabilities of R can be used to produce customised charts and how to develop your own applications for efficient processing of large data sets. As well as getting to know the R language, we will show you how RStudio is used as a front-end for your R programming.

The second day will cover a range of commonly used statistical techniques in R, including tabulation, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, linear regression, general linear models and methods for categorical variables. You may bring your own data for analysis or use the example datasets we provide. Although this course is primarily concerned with the R language, there will be opportunities to discuss the selection and application of the statistical methods and interpretation of results.

Instructions on how to obtain and install the free software R and RStudio will be given and you will need to have carried out this installation before the start of the course.

See our full range of courses (and options for bespoke courses) at https://go.herts.ac.uk/sscu or contact the course organiser, Professor Neil Spencer, at statistics@herts.ac.uk.