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R and RStudio

R is a free software programming language and a software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis.

What's the Difference?

R the application is installed on your computer and uses your personal computer resources to process R programming language. RStudio integrates with R as an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to provide further functionality. RStudio combines a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger.

We recommend you install both R and RStudio on your personal computer.

Installing R

RGui.jpg

To install R to your local computer follow these steps:

  1. Download the R installer
    1. For Windows at https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/
    2. For Mac at https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/
  2. ​Install R by opening the installer and following the steps
  3. That's it! You can now run R from your local computer

Installing RStudio

RStudio

To install RStudio to your local computer follow these steps:

  1. Verify you have already installed R and that you can launch the R application
  2. Download the RStudio Desktop installer at https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/
  3. ​Install RStudio Desktop by opening the installer and following the steps
  4. That's it! You can now run RStudio from your local computer

Please contact a Statistics CSR if you have any difficulty installing R or using RStudio