R Links

Author
Affiliation

Alex Taylor

University of Evansville

I built this page to point students (and anyone else learning R) to resources I’ve found helpful in my R journey. Use whatever information you’d like, but only for good. And give Stanley a virtual pat on the head before you go.

Getting Started with R

Start by downloading the R software environment:

Next download one of two IDEs, both developed by Posit:

  • Positron
    • A general IDE that supports R, but also Python and Julia
    • Just came out of beta, but is mostly stable and has modern features absent from RStudio
    • If you have experience in VSCode, I recommend Positron
  • RStudio
    • The classic IDE for R, and still the most popular
    • Straightforward, easier to navigate, and very stable
    • If you have no experience with IDEs, I recommend RStudio

After installing R and an IDE, you can start learning R. Here are some resources to get you started:

Data Science in R

Working with LLMs in R

Working with Large Language Models in R requires using an API from the LLM provider. This typically requires creating an account separate from your chat account, generating an API key, and adding it to your R environment. See here for more information.

See this blog post for a collection of LLM-related packages. Here are some specific features and packages I’ve found useful:

  • Copilot code completion in RStudio
    • Setting this up is easier in Positron.
  • Positron Assistant
    • Only available in Positron. Low-friction LLM integration into your coding experience. It currently only supports Anthropic models, though more LLM options are coming soon.
  • chattr
    • Chat with an LLM within your IDE, similar to copilot chat in VSCode
  • gander
    • Simple chat that sees your environment and existing code, and generates code in your Rscript according to your instructions
    • Somewhat similar to in-line copilot chat in VSCode (or Positron Assistant)
  • ellmer
    • Many other packages built on ellmer
    • Interact directly with a variety of LLMs
    • Chat, submit batch queries, parallel queries, queries for structured data responses, and more!
  • mall
    • Natural language processing using LLMs in R
    • Package functions include built-in prompts for text extraction, classification, translation, sentiment analysis, and more!
    • Can also easily create your own custom prompts

Web Crawling & Scraping in R

GIS

Text as Data