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4652

answers:

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I'm looking for resources to start exploring the R language (as was recommended in my question on Statistical Tools). I know there are some suggestions for basic online tutorials in this thread, but I'd like something a little bit more extensive.

Any suggestions for good textbook like references, either online and in dead-tree form?

+1  A: 

The Wikipedia has a list of books in its Resources section at the bottom of the page.

Hope they are of use to you.

Optimal Solutions
Your link is broken :(I was hoping to get answers from people with first-hand experience in learning the language.
Kena
Corrected the link. Sorry, no first hand experience.
Optimal Solutions
+3  A: 
Ben Hoffstein
Yes, I'm also considering S-Plus as an option for our current needs. An alternative is a R-hybrid (either embedded into Excel, or with a python interface which the non-programmers could work with). Either way, I'm at the point where I should learn a new language, so I have nothing to lose with R.
Kena
I've only used R from the command line, what about R commander for a GUI?
Thomas Owens
+3  A: 
Scottie T
+1  A: 

I've found the following online book, which has the benefit of being free: An Introduction to R

Anyone can tell me if it's any good?

Kena
That's by the folks who maintain and develop R, so it should be pretty good.
Scottie T
That's not necessarily a guarantee ;)
Kena
True. It should be accurate, at least. If not, you might want to consider a different statistics package.
Scottie T
+12  A: 

Check out these notes on R for programmers. I found R hard to learn because it's so unlike other programming languages, so I wrote up these notes for other programmers coming to R.

Also, as far as books, I recommend The R Book by Michael Crawley. It's expensive, around $100, but it's well-written and covers a lot of material (around 900 pages).

John D. Cook
John's notes are useful for programmers. But I wouldn't recommend Crawley. There is a good review of the problems with the book in Statistical Papers (2009) 50:445–446, reviewer: Uwe Ligges (http://www.springerlink.com/content/l36754377r182731/).
Rob Hyndman
I bought the Crawley book about nine months ago w/ the intention of using it as a primary reference. My experience w/ this text is certainly consistent w/ the Review above.
doug
+9  A: 

The best book I know of for learning R is actually a book about R's almost-identical-twin S:

Modern Applied Statistics with S (by Venables and Ripley)

cover

yoyoyoyosef
+6  A: 
bubaker
This is a great book, especially if you want to do day-to-day statistical work.
Alex Reynolds
+1  A: 

I originally learned R from Venables and Ripley, and found it to be the best at the time. I looked at Dalgaard, but found that I progressed very quickly beyond what it covered. It is good if there are only a few basic stats you want to do, but if you want to go any further with programming in R, it is too basic. The free Introduction to R is okay, but not the best way to get started quickly, in my experience.

What I currently recommend to anyone starting R is Crawley's The R Book. It is extremely complete and easy to read, with good examples. After using R for 6 years, I managed to pick up a half dozen new tricks just from reading the first chapter. I recommend it without hesitation, if you can afford to spend any money at all.

JAShapiro
+3  A: 

A First Course in Statistical Programming with R

Really good explanaitions of the basics in the first chapters, then goes deeper.

Ehva
+3  A: 

I've posted a list of nine recommended books on R here: http://robjhyndman.com/researchtips/r-books/

Rob Hyndman
+3  A: 

As with statistical models, there may not be a single book that is universally best for everyone. What is best for you, may well be about average for me. Dalgaard’s Introductory statistics with R is a good book. Rizzo's Statistical computing with R is another good book (for another thing). The series of inexpensive and focused books on R by Springer are good, too. Just start from a subset of Rob Hyndman's list (or any good equivalent), see what works best for you and eventually create your own list.

On another note, the review of Crawley's R book that Rob pointed to is helpful. But the number of typos, grammar issues and style inconsistencies per half-page is somewhat less than acceptable for a tier B refereed journal. Also, Zeilberger's opinion 63 comes to mind.

knot
A: 

The R Journal : http://journal.r-project.org/

Remus Rigo
+4  A: 

Norman Matloff's R for Programmers PDF: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/R/RProg.pdf

This is for a distinct audience; it's not an introduction to statistical methods in R as much as an introduction to the R language. Really excellent though.

Vince
+8  A: 
aL3xa
The R inferno is a great find, thanks!
Stedy