Towards the basic R mindset.

Previously

The post “A first step towards R from spreadsheets” provides an introduction to switching from spreadsheets to R.  It also includes a list of additional posts (like this one) on the transition.

Add two columns

Figure 1 shows some numbers in two columns and the start of adding those two columns to each other in a third column.

Figure 1: Adding two columns in a spreadsheet. 

The next step is to fill the addition formula down the column. Read more →

Move your data analysis to a computing environment specifically designed for it.

Why R and not spreadsheets?

Here are three reasons:

• complexity
• graphics
• money

Spreadsheets are easily overwhelmed.  Very complex things can be done in spreadsheets — it is just that complex spreadsheets are inefficient and dangerous.

Graphics should be considered vital when doing anything with data.  R has amazing graphical capabilities. Read more →