Theme 4: Utilities

This theme covers the commands that are generally useful when accessing the programming aspect of the R language. This theme also covers some commands that do not easily fit into the other three themes of “Data,” “Math and Statistics,” and “Graphics.” Some of these topics include accessing the help system and getting/using additional packages of R commands.

Because R is a programming language, you have great flexibility in how you use it. You can customize R in two main ways:

  • Custom functions
  • Scripts (used as source code)

These two methods differ from one another in the following manner: You can think of functions as short scripts you can type from the keyboard and scripts as longer items that you would use a text editor to create. Once you start to create and use your own custom functions and scripts, you will need to use certain commands that help you undertake the tasks you set R to do and to manage the output (so you can see the results).

Topics in this Theme

Commands In This Theme:

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