R is a free statistical programming language that is very popular and powerful. I like to use it with RStudio, a program which allows for a smoother user experience along with some enhanced back-end capabilities to base R. The intro-level version of RStudio is also free.

Download instructions:

Here is a helpful video from Udacity on downloading RStudio for Windows (Mac will be very similar). Some screenshots and notes follow.

1. Download R from the R Project homepage.

CRAN is an acronym for the “Comprehensive R Archive Network” and is a series of non-profit organizations around the globe hosting mirrors of the base R code. R is free and this distribution underscores the open-source nature of the “R project.”

2. Download RStudio.

The base R code you download from CRAN will come with its own graphical user interface (GUI) shown above.

For reasons I discuss in my course, RStudio is a preferred environment for working in R. RStudio is proprietary software that runs “on top” of base R (remember that R is open-source, so anyone can develop on top of the code as they like), but fortunately a free community version is available.

Once you’ve got RStudio on your machine, check out my “Tour of RStudio,” from which the above photo comes.

Important – you must download R and RStudio. RStudio needs the base R code to function.

Until next time…

Ever used R? Have ideas on how it could help you? Questions? Comments? Let me know.

If you are brand-new to learning R, check out my free mini course, “5 Things Excel Users Should Know About R.” You can also check out my blog posts on R using the “rstats” tag.

I hope to start sharing some of the cool things I have learned to do in R, but installing is a good first start.

The post Installing RStudio first appeared on Stringfest Analytics.

Why is Domo not the answer? What does playing the bass have to do with developing a spreadsheet? Watch and learn! 

I had a spirited conversation with Oz du Soleil and Alex Powers on Alex’s It’s Not About the Cell live Facebook hangout.

Topics ranged from Reddit’s Excel thread to online Excel communities in general. We then looked at Excel’s place in the larger business intelligence community and the future’s platform.

We also had some great audience participation. 

Thanks for having me, Alex!

Readers: See you at the next hangout? 

The post From Reddit to Slap Bass: It’s Not About The Cell Live! first appeared on Stringfest Analytics.