Installing R on your System
Dr Deepak Varughese, MBBS, MD, PGDFM
Can I just download R and run it?
Technically Yes - but usually no.
R is a language that you need to install on your PC
It is usually combined with an Integrated Development Environment like RStudio
The IDE is used to compile and run the code.
Integrated Development Environment
An IDE is a tool that complies and runs the code you write. Modern IDEs can also have other features like File Browsing, Code Completion , debugging etc
The most commonly used IDE used with R is R Studio (from Posit)
Other Popular IDEs
Other IDEs that are gaining popularity include Positron (Also from Posit) and VS Code
Positron and VS Code can be useful especially if one would like to combine different programming languages like Python and R in the same environment. Since RStudio is the traditional IDE used for R we will use R Studio for these tutorials.
You may however choose to use a different IDE and experiment with it if you like.
RStudio
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Positron
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Hands-on : Installing R
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