NavigatoR: Plotting Your Course Through R Fundamentals

Preface

Welcome

NavigatoR: Plotting Your Course Through R Fundamentals guides you on an explorative journey through the fundamentals of R programming. This book is designed for individuals who are eager to establish a reproducible workflow for their future data science endeavors. From the basics of R to advanced data manipulation and visualization techniques, this resource provides a structured pathway to mastering the essential skills.

You will start by setting up your R environment and understanding the core concepts of R programming. As you progress, you will learn how to effectively manage projects, organize your data, and perform robust data analyses. Key topics include:

• Introduction to R: Understanding the R environment, data types, and basic operations.
• Project Setup: Setting up R projects, managing working directories, and using the here package.
• Data Manipulation: Using Tidyverse packages like dplyr and tidyr for data cleaning and transformation.
• Data Visualization: Creating insightful and aesthetically pleasing visualizations with ggplot2.
• Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting with generative AI.
• Packages: Using packages for effective data handling and presentation.

The book is not designed to be an exhaustive manual on every facet of R programming, nor does it serve as a conventional statistics textbook. Instead, this book acts as a carefully curated guide, focusing on the essential concepts and techniques that are most vital for effective R programming. It delves into the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of setting up a robust workflow in R, addressing those critical insights and practical strategies that would have been invaluable when I first embarked on my programming journey.

Tip

If anything feels unclear in this book, then I would highly recommend using AI to explain or expand on the subject.