What is R?
R is a language made for working with numbers and data, like a super calculator that can also draw charts. Scientists and analysts use it to find patterns in information.
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What is R?
R is a programming language and free software environment built specifically for statistical computing and graphics. It was created by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland in 1993, drawing heavily on the S language developed earlier at Bell Labs.
R is the tool of choice across data science, statistics, academic research, and bioinformatics, thanks to its enormous ecosystem of statistical packages and built-in plotting capabilities.
Note:
R consistently ranks among the top languages for data analysis and statistics -- if your work involves interpreting data rather than just building software, R is often the fastest path to an answer.
Example: What is R?
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Related Topics
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view already swaps in the hi_ translation fields (or blanks these
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without a lang_code check here. #}
Common Mistakes
- Thinking R is only for statistics and cannot do general programming, when it is a full language used for data cleaning, plotting and scripting.
- Expecting R to work like Python with the same syntax, such as using
=everywhere and 0-based indexing, when R conventionally uses<-and starts at 1. - Installing only RStudio and expecting it to run code, when RStudio is an editor that needs R installed separately.
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