Editing Data Into Insights (Spring 2021)/R Lab 1

This first lab is really just about getting R set up so that you are ready to get going.

By the end of this lab you should:
# Have your R environment is set up correctly
# Understand the concept of R Markdown files and be able to open and "knit" them
# Create your first visualization in R

== Installing R and RStudio ==

R is a statistical programming language, designed to help people work, understand, and visualize data.

We will also be installing RStudio, which is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment IDE] which makes it much easier to work with R.

So, your first task is to install both R and RStudio as explained in [https://techvidvan.com/tutorials/install-r/ this tutorial].

Once you succeed, you should have an icon for Rstudio, and when you open it, you should see something like this:
[[File:Rstudio.png|thumb|upright=2.6|center|RStudio image from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RStudio Wikipedia]]]

If you can't figure it out, then reach out on #homework-help on Discord, and we can help you.


== R Markdown ==

R Markdown is an approach for making reproducible documents and reports which directly incorporate code.

You can write code and content interspersed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKUufzpoHDE This YouTube video] is a nice introduction to how to use and navigate an R Markdown document.

To help you to understand R and R Markdown, I created an example document.
* Right-click [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdfoote/TDIS/spring-2021/week_6/r_markdown_example.Rmd this link] and save it to your computer
* Open it in RStudio
* "Knit" it and make sure that it works (there should be a "knit" icon near the top of RStudio)
** If you have problems, make sure that you have installed the tidyverse (as explained in [https://r4ds.had.co.nz/introduction.html the reading]).
* Complete the exercise at the bottom of the document and knit it again
* Turn in either your .Rmd file or the knitted HTML file on Brightspace