How to install, setup and get started with R Programming on your Windows 10 device…

Use this simple step-by-step guide to get up and running with R by installing it on Windows 10

What exactly is R?

• R is a programming language (and its free too!) that was originally designed and developed back in 1993.
• R has an extensive inventory of statistical and graphical methods and libraries.
• Not only is R chosen by academic institutions, but large MNCs such as Google, Uber, and Airbnb use it extensively.

Why should I even bother to learn it?

FOr serious data science and data analysis, R includes machine learning algorithms, regression functions, time series, and statistical results, to name just a few.

Hey, how do I install R on Windows 10?

Well, I am glad you asked — simply follow the steps I have outlined below — with all of the relevant screenshots — and you will be up and running in no time on your Windows 10 device…

Step-By-Step — get R up and running in no time

Well lets get right into it, so the very first step is you need to go to the following website and download the latest R ‘base’ package — https://www.r-project.org/

This is the home page for www.r-project.org

On the left hand side menu in the home page, select the CRAN option under the Download option

After selecting CRAN, this is what you will see

As I am based in Australia, I chose that mirror site — obviously choose the region where you are located as this will help with the download speed…

After choosing a mirror site (Australia for me), this is what you will see

As this instruction set id for Windows 10, choose the following:

Download R for Windows

After choosing Download for Windows, this is what you will see

Select the base build so you can have the basic build to start using R with…

After choosing the base build, this is what you will see

Now once you select the Download R X.X.X for Windows option, then the downloading will commence..

• On my Internet NBN link, this took approximately 5 x minutes to finish downloading

The download was 86 megabytes in total

After downloading completes, this language setup option displays

Press Next on this

I used the default directory option, Press Next on this

I left these options checked, and then press Next

I left this option as is, and then press Next

I left this option as is, and then press Next

I left these options checked, and then press Next

and installation now commences…

The installation process took about 10 minutes in total to complete

Now after pressing Finish on the installation window above, I was waiting for R to load so I could see it and get cracking…. however it was just me and the crickets chirping waiting… waiting..

So go to your desktop or Windows menu options and dbl-click or select the program to start. And this is what you will see…

This is the R main display window, ready for end user input

I am familiar with MATLAB, so I entered a simple expression on the command line (25 * 12.50) and pressed Enter, and the result was displayed as below

My first R command line expression!

Well there you go guys, R is now installed on my Windows 10 device, and I am now ready to start programming in R both using the command line, and writing simple packages and scripts.

In a future post, I will be expanding on the R installation, and I will be explaining how to write meaningful R programs to show data analytics and the graphical options it can offer...

Thanks for reading this, and if please leave me any feedback you have, and I will get back to you, cheers and happy coding in R.