Installing R studio

R and RStudio

R is a freely available environment for computing. R works with a command-line interface, meaning you type in commands telling R what to do. RStudio is a convenient interface for using R. Both are free! To install R and RStudio on your home computer, R must first be in installed.

Downloading and installing R

Follow the steps:

1. Visit the site https://mirror.las.iastate.edu/CRAN/ or http://cran.wustl.edu/.

2. Click the link that corresponds to your appropriate operating system. (see Figure 1). The direction for this handout is done in Windows but should be similar to for Mac or Linux.

3. To download the latest release for R (see Figure 2), click on “install R for the first time”.

4. Click on “Download R 3.5.1 for Windows” to download R (see Figure 3). Note: The version was 3.5.1 when these notes were written. A newer version may now appear.

5. Once the program has downloaded, install R with the default settings.

6. That’s it! Although we will not be using R directly, a shortcut to R should appear on the desktop.

Downloading and installing RStudio

Follow the steps:

1. Visit the site http://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page under “Installers for Supported Platforms”

2. To download RStudio, click the link that corresponds to your appropriate operating system (see Figure 4).

3. Once the program has downloaded, install RStudio with the default settings.

4. That’s it! You can now run Rstudio from your home computer. A shortcut to RStudio should appear on the desktop.