Some R resources

Some R resources for BTRY 694

We will focus on the use of 2 statistical packages: R and SAS. There is ample support available from campus sources on installing and using SAS. However, SAS can be clunky and expensive and is not always up to date with the latest in statistical methodology. R is free, open source software that (1) does everything we need (and vastly more); (2) is more flexible in its ability to manipulate data, produce graphics, and code up new (or modified) analysis procedures; and (3) is frequently updated by contributions from users. So I will mainly focus on R; however, SAS code will typically be provided as well, especially for the purposes of demonstrating the most important commands associated with the analysis of survival data.

The latest release of R can always be downloaded from the R web site; the US mirror site R CRAN may provide faster downloads. See the R FAQs for help on installation. There are also official R manuals and other contributed documentation. You can search for R help here. You might also find this 4 page summary of R commands to be helpful. Further suggestions on useful resources for R are always appreciated.

R is based on the S language. S+ is a commercial software package that is also based on the S language; it is distributed by Insightful. Cornell has a site license for S+. Save some minor syntax changes, most R commands also work in S+ (and vice versa); however, the output may differ slightly. One useful consequence: most materials written for S+ can also be used with R. An advantage of S+ for Windows is the GUI interface, which is somewhat easier to use than the GUI interface available for R if you are most comfortable with a point-and-click computing environment. However, the full power of all of these languages can only be fully realized by knowing how to use the command line.

A reasonably current listing of books (statistics and otherwise) that heavily utilize the R language can be found here . One recommended applied statistics text that is well integrated with the R language is Modern Applied Statistics with S by W. Venables and B. Ripley (4th Edition). While the book is technically written for S+ users, the set of MASS routines is also provided as part of the standard R distribution.