PREFACE

The aim of The Book of R: A First Course in Programming

and Statistics is to provide a relatively gentle yet informative

exposure to the statistical software environment

R, alongside some common statistical analyses,

so that readers may have a solid foundation from

which to eventually become experts in their own right. Learning to use

and program in a computing language is much the same as learning a new

spoken language. At the beginning, it is often difficult and may even be

daunting—but total immersion in and active use of the language is the

best and most effective way to become fluent.