DSPA: Chapter 1 Foundations of R

This chapter introduces the foundations of R programming for visualization, statistical computing and scientific inference. Specifically, in this chapter we will (1) discuss the rationale for selecting R as a computational platform for all DSPA demonstrations; (2) present the basics of installing shell-based R and RStudio user-interface, (3) show some simple R commands and scripts (e.g., translate long-to-wide data format, data simulation, data stratification and subsetting), (4) introduce variable types and their manipulation; (5) demonstrate simple mathematical functions, statistics, and matrix operators; (6) explore simple data visualization; and (7) introduce optimization and model fitting. The chapter appendix includes references to R introductory and advanced resources, as well as a primer on debugging.