[R-sig-eco] Good Book for learning R

[Gavin Simpson]

Venables and Ripley (2002) Modern Applied Stats with S, Springer and, in
particular, Venables and Ripley (2000) S Programming, Springer, are two
good resources for picking up tips, features of the language etc,
especially the latter.

Those looking at programming in R might also take a look at Braun and
Murdoch (2007) A First Course in Statistical Programming with R.
Cambridge University Press.

And John Chambers new (soon to be released if not already) book Software
for Data Analysis: Programming with R. Springer, which although I
haven't got a copy yet myself would seem to be ideally suited to the
sort of text one or two posters are looking for.

Whilst several people have mentioned The R Book, if this is anything
like Crawley's Statistical Computing tome (and from the table of
contents it very much looks like it is), then it has wide-ranging cover
of various aspects of statistics and computing in R (i.e. doing <insert
favourite stats technique here> in R), but isn't really designed as a
book to learn R programming per se, and I would not consider buying such
a book if my aim was to learn more about programming with R (although
what people mean by programming in R might differ from what I think of
it as...).

G

On Tue, 2008-05-06 at 09:53 -0500, Alexander Shenkin wrote:
> I will second Dan's sentiment here: I haven't found a single source 
> which comprehensively lays out the programming framework for R (though 
> I've never seen The R Book).  I ended up learning (and still am 
> learning) how to program R in a relatively piecemeal manner.  Some of 
> the references which come with R will give you a nice, very basic intro 
> with which you can get going (Venables & Smith's "An Introduction to R", 
> in particular).  There's also the "R Reference Card" 
> (http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/Short-refcard.pdf) which is a 
> nice companion as you're plugging away, though not too appropriate for 
> first time learning.
> 
> My own suggestion would be to read through Venables & Smith, and then 
> learn the rest as you go along, as you need it.
> 
> allie
> 
> Dan Rabosky wrote:
> > I strongly recommend Michael Crawley's "The R Book". A bit expensive,  
> > but absolutely worth it. It is nearly 900 pages and covers everything  
> > from data structures to character string manipulation to stats. There  
> > may be better books out there, but I haven't seen them. As an aside,  
> > Crawley has a much shorter book which mainly focuses on basic  
> > statistics in R and which isn't nearly as useful as "the R book".
> > 
> > Unfortunately, all of the books of which I am aware are either  
> > references or emphasize statistics in R. I have not yet come across a  
> > good book on R programming that compares to the books available for  
> > most other languages (e.g., with student exercises etc tailored to  
> > the programming neophyte).
> > 
> > ~Dan
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On May 6, 2008, at 8:09 AM, Jeri Parrent wrote:
> > 
> >>  I have only used R a little  bit, and I am looking for a good,
> >> comprehensive
> >>    book on R, but one that is approachable for a novice like myself.
> >>    Any suggestions?
> >>    Thanks,
> >>    Jeri
> >>
> >> -- 
> >> Jeri Lynn Parrent
> >> Postdoctoral Fellow
> >> Department of Integrative Biology
> >> University of Guelph
> >> Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
> >> Tel: 519-824-4120 x56009
> >>
> >> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> > 
> > Dan Rabosky
> > Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology &
> > Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program
> > Cornell Lab of Ornithology
> > Cornell University
> > Ithaca, NY 14853-2701
> > DLR32Xcornell.edu (X = @)
> > ph 607 592 4636
> > fax 607 255 8088
> > 
> > new website:
> > http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/Rabosky/dan/main.html
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> > 
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> 
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