What is R programming?

R programming is different from other programming languages like Python, C# and C, etc. R programming is the best programming language to analyze data. R programming provides many features to understand the data better in a more understandable form but these features will be discussed later. Now, let's focus on the background of R programming language

R programming is open source, which means it is free with GNU General Public License and the pre-compiled versions are available for cross platforms like Windows, Linux, and MAC OS.

According to some books, R programming language is named based on the author's first letter (Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka).

History of R programming language

R programming language was developed at the University of Auckland, New Zealand by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman for statistical analysis, graphics representation, and reporting of data; and currently is developed by the R development core team.

R programming language's initial version was released in 1994 and a stable beta version in 2000.

Prerequisites

You must have a basic understanding of computer programming languages, and if you are an expert in any programming language, it is advantageous for you.

Basic syntax of R programming

R programming also has a simple syntax like Python programmin,g and it is easy to understand. For example,

  1. # Print Hello World.  
  2. print("Hello World")  
  3. # Add two numbers.  
  4. print(23.9 + 11.6)  
Overview

R programming can also have some basic features like other programming languages and they are listed below:
  1. Decision making

    1. If statement
    2. Else if statement
    3. Switch statement

  2. Looping

    1. Repeat loop
    2. While loop
    3. For loop

  3. Array and list

  4. Functions

R programming data interface

R programming supports many type data interfaces that are listed below:

  1. R-CSV file
  2. R-Excel file
  3. R-Binary file
  4. R-XML file
  5. R-JSON file
  6. R-Web data
  7. R-database

R charts and Graph

R programming supports all the charts and graphs listed below:

  1. R - Pie Charts
  2. R - Bar Charts
  3. R - Boxplots
  4. R - Histograms
  5. R - Line Graphs
  6. R - Scatterplots

Operations performed using R programming

In R programming, we can perform all the operations, using built-in functions, given below:

  1. R - Mean, Median & Mode
  2. R - Linear Regression
  3. R - Multiple Regression
  4. R - Logistic Regression
  5. R - Normal Distribution
  6. R - Binomial Distribution
  7. R - Poisson Regression
  8. R - Analysis of Covariance
  9. R - Time Series Analysis
  10. R - Nonlinear Least Square
  11. R - Decision Tree
  12. R - Random Forest
  13. R - Survival Analysis
  14. R - Chi Square Tests

I hope you liked this article.

Next Recommended Readings