May Institute 2022 – Introduction to R for Beginners

Date: May 13th & 14th, 2022

Time: 11:00 AM – 2:15 PM (Eastern Time)

Location: Online via Zoom

Overview

This hands-on workshop will cover essential basics of the R Programming Language, focusing on key elements to help new R users start working with data. The workshop will take place over two days, approximately 3 hrs. each day, and consist of interspersed lectures and hands-on practice sessions.

Day 1 Topics

• How to work with RStudio
• How to write and execute R code
• R Coding essentials
  • variables and variable assignment
  • vectors
  • functions
  • conditional expressions
• How to read data files into R
• How to work with Data Frames

Day 2 Topics

• Review of Day 1 exercises
• What is tidy data?
• Introduction to the tidyverse
• Introduction to dplyr and data manipulation pipelines
• Wrap-up, questions, and next-steps with learning resources

Workshop Materials

Workshop materials are available online at: https://computationalproteomics.khoury.northeastern.edu

The same materials are also present in this repository and linked below:

Day 1

• Lecture Slides
• Exercises – First Steps with R Coding
• Exercises – Working with Data Frames
• Exercise Data (.zip)

Day 2

• Lecture Slides
• Exercises – dplyr Basics
• Exercise Data (.zip) – Same as Day 1

Pre-workshop Set-up

We will be using RStudio to practice R coding throughout the workshop. Please make sure you have a working version of R and RStudio ready for use before the workshop. There are two main ways you can get set-up:

1. Install R and RStudio on your own computer
2. Use a pre-configured, cloud-based R workspace on RStudio Cloud (requires free registration)

Both options are free, and either or both can be used. Please see the additional set-up instructions below.

Installing R and RStudio on your own computer

1. Install R for your platform from: https://cloud.r-project.org
2. Install RStudio Desktop Open Source Edition from: https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download
3. Launch RStudio Desktop and confirm no warning messages or error messages appear. R must be installed before RStudio, and if R is not installed properly, the application will display an error message. If this happens, try installing R again and confirm successful installation.
4. Within RStudio
   1. Select Tools -> Install Packages...
   2. In the "Packages" text box, type tidyverse
   3. Click Install
   4. Important: if a message in the R console asks if you want to install packages from source, type 'no' and press return/enter.
   5. Get a cup of tea or coffee while the tidyverse R packages are installed (might take a while)
5. Download the exercise data (GitHub Link), unzip the file and have it available for the workshop. We will cover what to do with this data during the workshop

Using RStudio Cloud

1. Register for a free RStudio Cloud account at: https://rstudio.cloud/
2. Click the RStudio Cloud workspace link provided in the Workshop Document on https://computationalproteomics.khoury.northeastern.edu
3. Click "Save a Permanent Copy" at the top toolbar; the project is now accessible in "Your Workspace"
4. The necessary exercise files and data are ready to go in the workspace – no additional set-up is required