You have unexpectedly been thrust into the role of lead strategist for the kingdom. After you install your predecessor's mysterious data analysis tool, you will begin to explore its fundamental elements. Next, you will use R to import and organize your data. Then, you will use functions and statistical analyses to arrive at potential courses of action. Subsequently, you will design your own functions to assess the practical impacts of your predictions. Lastly, you will focus on communicating your results through the use of charts, plots, graphs, and custom built visualizations. The fate of the kingdom is in your hands. Your rapid development as a master R strategist is the key to future success.
Chapter 1, Uncovering the Strategist's Data Analysis Tool, serves as an introduction to the R Project. We will explore the benefits of using R and the topics covered in this book.
Chapter 2, Preparing R for Battle, includes a step-by-step guide to downloading and installing R. We will also launch R and execute our first commands.
Chapter 3, Exploring the Mysterious Data Analysis Tool, is an introduction to the R interface and programming language. In this chapter, we will use R to solve a complex puzzle.
Chapter 4, Collecting and Organizing Information, covers how to import data into R and manipulate it using variables. We will also learn how manage the R workspace.
Chapter 5, Assessing the Situation, focuses on evaluating our data and using it to generate predictive models. We will also consider the statistical and practical significance of our analyses.
Chapter 6, Planning the Attack, involves using our data models to predict potential outcomes and assess their logistical viability. Along the way, we will learn to build our own custom functions.
Chapter 7, Organizing the Battle Plans, revisits the task of planning and organizing a complete data analysis, such that it can be effectively communicated to others. Throughout this process, we will apply the common steps to all R analyses.
Chapter 8, Briefing the Emperor, is a first look at R's graphical capabilities. We will make customizable charts, graphs, and plots that can be exported for use outside of R.
Chapter 9, Briefing the Generals, examines the in-depth customization options available to several types of charts, graphs, and plots. We will also build our own custom graphics from scratch.
Chapter 10, Becoming a Master Strategist, describes the resources that are available to you beyond the contents of this book for further expanding your knowledge of R.
This code used in this book should be applicable to any version of R on any platform, although it was generated and tested using R 2.11.1 for Mac OS X.
You want to take control of your data and learn how to conduct effective analyses with R. Whether you are a data analyst, business or information technology professional, student, educator, researcher, or anyone else who wants to learn about R, this book is for you.
No prior experience with R is necessary. Knowledge of other programming languages, software packages, or statistics may be helpful, but is not required. With a willingness to learn and an interest in conducting superior data analyses, you will quickly become an experienced and knowledgeable R user.
In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.
To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:
Action 1
Action 2
Action 3
Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:
This heading explains the working of tasks or instructions that you have just completed.
You will also find some other learning aids in the book, including:
These are short multiple choice questions intended to help you test your own understanding.
These set practical challenges and give you ideas for experimenting with what you have learned.
You will also find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "We also expanded upon the legend(...) function to gain more control over its appearance."
A block of code is set as follows:
> barplot(height = barAllMethodsDurationBars, main = barAllMethodsDurationLabelMain, xlab = barAllMethodsDurationLabelX, ylab = barAllMethodsDurationLabelY, xlim = barAllMethodsDurationLimX, ylim = barAllMethodsDurationLimY, col = barAllMethodsDurationRainbowColors)
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
> barplot(height = barAllMethodsDurationBars, main = barAllMethodsDurationLabelMain, xlab = barAllMethodsDurationLabelY, ylab = barAllMethodsDurationLabelX, xlim = barAllMethodsDurationLimY, ylim = barAllMethodsDurationLimX, col = barAllMethodsDurationRainbowColors)
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "The R Help window will open to display documentation on the provided function".
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