Every data scientist has their preferred choice of programming language to work with. I was first introduced to the R programming language in college and even though it has been 5 years, RStudio has made it very easy to pick up right where I left off.

What is RStudio?

RStudio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for R. An IDE is a software application that consolidates basic tools for programmers. In the case of RStudio, it provides a user-friendly environment to learn and practice the R programming language.

The RStudio IDE has four main sections. The upper left is the source editor where you can work on R scripts; an R script is a text file where you can save R code and comments to be re-executed at a later time. In comparison, below the source editor is the console which allows you to issue R code and observe the results immediately. When R code produces plots, it will appear to the right of the console. In the upper right corner of RStudio is the environment which contains all data currently loaded making it easy to examine what data you have.

RStudio and Data Science

RStudio provides you with an easy workplace for any data science project. From importing data stored in a file or a web API to wrangling data so that it’s tidy and transformed. Once you have the variables that you need, you can either visualize your data to find something you didn’t expect and raise new questions or model your data in order to answer your questions. Lastly, use R Markdown to wrap up your project by communicating your results in a document, dashboard or even on a website.

And of course, you’ll be using R programming throughout for every part of your project!

Click here for more information about RStudio and how to download it for free to run right from your desktop.