A beginner's tutorial for R

• Some common commands

# Quit R
q()
q(save="no")
 
# Setting the default working directory
setwd(file="c:\\AnyDirectory\\")
setwd(file="c:/AnyDirectory/")
 
# Get the default working directory
getwd()
 
# See which variables are currently in the workspace
ls()
 
# Remove a list of variables
rm(var1,var2,var3,...)
 
# Remove all objects from workspace
rm(list=ls())
 
# Note: the variables whose names begin with a dot are not listed by ls(), so they are not removed by above command. 
# Instead, you can use following command to remove them
rm(list=ls(all=TRUE))
 
# Load a package
library(PackageName)
 
# Sink R output to a file
sink(FileName)
sink(NULL) # stop the sink



• You can use either single- or double-quote for text

> cat("I said:\"Hello!\"",'then smile.')
I said:"Hello!" then smile.
> cat("This is Eric\'s book,",'and that is Mike\'s toy.')
This is Eric's book, and that is Mike's toy.