R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics

Book Preface

With the increasing prevalence of data in our daily lives, new and better tools are needed to analyze the deluge. Traditionally there have been two ends of the spectrum: lightweight, individual analysis using tools like Excel or SPSS and heavy duty, high-performance analysis built with C++ and the like. With the increasing strength of personal computers grew a middle ground that was both interactive and robust. Analysis done by an individual on his or her own computer in an exploratory fashion could quickly be transformed into something destined for a server, underpinning advanced business processes. This area is the domain of R, Python, and other scripted languages.

R, invented by Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka of the University of Auckland in 1993, grew out of S, which was invented by John Chambers at Bell Labs. It is a high-level language that was originally intended to be run interactively where the user runs a command, gets a result, and then runs another command. It has since evolved into a language that can also be embedded in systems and tackle complex problems.

In addition to transforming and analyzing data, R can produce amazing graphics and reports with ease. It is now being used as a full stack for data analysis, extracting and transforming data, fitting models, drawing inferences and making predictions, plotting and reporting results.

R’s popularity has skyrocketed since the late 2000s, as it has stepped out of academia and into banking, marketing, pharmaceuticals, politics, genomics and many other fields. Its new users are often shifting from low-level, compiled languages like C++, other statistical packages such as SAS or SPSS, and from the 800-pound gorilla, Excel. This time period also saw a rapid surge in the number of add-on packages—libraries of prewritten code that extend R’s functionality.

While R can sometimes be intimidating to beginners, especially for those without programming experience, I find that programming analysis, instead of pointing and clicking, soon becomes much easier, more convenient and more reliable. It is my goal to make that learning process easier and quicker