R For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11

Getting Help

In This Chapter

Using the built-in R help

Finding information online

Joining the R community

Making a reproducible example to get help

Even the best R programmers occasionally get stuck on a problem. In these situations, you need to know how to find help. Fortunately, R code is generally very well documented and has excellent help available. You just need to know how to access it. In this chapter, we show you how.

If the built-in help doesn’t solve your problem, you can search for information on the Internet and turn to the online R community. We end this chapter by walking you through how to create a minimal reproducible example, which you’ll find helpful in getting help.

Finding Information in the R Help Files

The R documentation (in the form of R Help files) is a rich resource that also can seem cryptic at times. Most of the time, if you read the Help files carefully, you’ll get a better understanding of why a function isn’t doing what you think it should or why you’re getting an error. Some of the R help can look incomprehensible at first glance, but ...