R is a powerful analytical language and contains a number of useful packages for analyzing data.

RStudio is a free and open-source integrated development environment (IDE) for R. RStudio provides comprehensive facilities to R programmers and is highly recommended in this class.

Installing R

We recommend installing the most recent version or R (4.3.0 (called ‘Already Tomorrow’) as of April 21, 2023). If you have had installed R already some time ago, we recommend updating/reinstalling it to the most recent version. Use a link below to launch download of R installers (if the download does not start, a fix may be to copy-paste the below link to your browser):

For other operating systems, or if you prefer to access the download link from the official website, visit http://cran.us.r-project.org and select Download R for Linux, Download R for macOS or Download R for Windows based on which device you have.

Once the proper installation package has been selected, run the package and follow the on-screen directions. This installation includes the R language and a graphical user interface (GUI). Rather using the GUI, we recommend installing RStudio - an integrated development environment (IDE) that lets you interact with R with some added benefits.

Installing RStudio

To install RStudio, visit https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/. The website should look like this:

Once on the website, scroll down and select the proper installation file for your platform (Windows, Mac, etc.). Open up the installer and follow the directions to install RStudio.

Note that your operating system may be too old to install the current version of RStudio. If this is the case try installing progressively older versions found here until it works. You will know if it worked if you try to open RStudio and you see an interface without a message about things going poorly.