Skip to main content

Developing R Packages

Create and share your own R Packages!

Start Course for Free
4 Hours16 Videos56 Exercises6,801 Learners

Create Your Free Account

GoogleLinkedInFacebook

or

By continuing, you accept our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and that your data is stored in the USA.

Loved by learners at thousands of companies

Course Description

In this course, you will learn the end-to-end process for creating an R package from scratch. You will start off by creating the basic structure for your package, and adding in important details like functions and metadata. Once the basic components of your package are in place, you will learn about how to document your package, and why this is important for creating quality packages that other people - as well as your future self - can use with ease. Once you have created the components of your package, you will learn how to test they work properly, by creating tests, running checks, and building your package. By the end of this course you can expect to have all the necessary skills to create and share your own R packages.
  1. 1

    The R Package Structure

    Free

    In this chapter, you will learn the basics of creating an R package. You will learn about the structure of R packages, set up a package, and write a function and include it in your package. You will also learn about the metadata stored in the DESCRIPTION and NAMESPACE files.

    Play Chapter Now
    Introduction to package building
    50 xp
    The structure of an R package
    100 xp
    Contents of an R package
    50 xp
    Writing a simple function
    100 xp
    Including functions in a package
    100 xp
    DESCRIPTION and NAMESPACE files
    50 xp
    Package names
    50 xp
    Writing a DESCRIPTION file
    50 xp
    Detailing authors, maintainers and contributors
    50 xp
    Optional directories
    50 xp
    The use_* functions
    100 xp
    Best practice for structuring code
    100 xp
  2. 2

    Documenting Packages

    In this chapter, you will learn how to document your package. You will learn why documentation is important, and how to provide documentation for your package, its functions, and other components. You will also learn about what it means to export a function and how to implement this in your package.

    Play Chapter Now
    Introduction to roxygen2
    50 xp
    A simple function header
    100 xp
    Documenting function arguments
    100 xp
    Importing other packages
    100 xp
    How to export functions?
    50 xp
    Export best practice
    50 xp
    Exporting functions
    100 xp
    Documenting other elements
    50 xp
    Adding examples
    100 xp
    Documenting function return values
    100 xp
    Additional documentation
    100 xp
    Minimum level of documentation
    50 xp
    Documenting a package
    50 xp
    Adding package documentation
    100 xp
    Documenting data objects
    100 xp
    Creating man files
    100 xp
  3. 3

    Checking and Building R Packages

    In this chapter, you will learn about how to run checks to ensure that your R package is correctly structured and can be installed. You will learn how to correct common problems, and get your package ready to be built so it can be shared with others.

    Play Chapter Now
    Why check an R package?
    50 xp
    What does a "check" check?
    50 xp
    Running a check
    100 xp
    Errors, warnings and notes
    50 xp
    Undocumented parameters
    100 xp
    Undefined global variables
    100 xp
    Differences in package dependencies
    50 xp
    Depends or imports?
    50 xp
    Adding a dependency
    50 xp
    Adding the import to the description
    100 xp
    Building packages with continuous integration
    50 xp
    Building an R package
    100 xp
    Setting a package up for using Travis
    50 xp
  4. 4

    Adding Unit Tests to R Packages

    In the final chapter, you will learn how to add tests to your package to ensure your code runs as expected if the package is updated or changes. You will look at how to test functions to ensure they produce expected values, and also how to test for other aspects of functionality such as expected errors. Once you've written tests for your functions, you'll finally learn how to run your tests and what to do in the case of a failing test.

    Play Chapter Now
    What are unit tests and why write them?
    50 xp
    Setting up the test structure
    100 xp
    Writing an individual test
    100 xp
    Testing for equality
    100 xp
    Testing errors and warnings
    50 xp
    Testing errors
    100 xp
    Testing warnings
    100 xp
    Testing specific output and non-exported functions
    50 xp
    Testing non-exported functions
    100 xp
    Testing specific output
    50 xp
    Grouping tests and execution output
    50 xp
    Grouping tests
    100 xp
    Executing unit tests
    100 xp
    Understanding a test failure
    50 xp
    Wrap-up
    50 xp

In the following tracks

R Programmer

Collaborators

Sumedh Panchadhar
Eunkyung Park
Richie Cotton

Prerequisites

Introduction to Writing Functions in R
Aimee Gott HeadshotAimee Gott

Head of Skill Assessment Content at DataCamp

Aimee is the Head of Certification Content at DataCamp. Prior to joining DataCamp she was the Education Practice Lead at Mango Solutions. Aimee is a co-author of SAMS Teach Yourself R in 24 Hours.
See More

What do other learners have to say?

    FAQs

    Join over 11 million learners and start Developing R Packages today!

    Create Your Free Account

    GoogleLinkedInFacebook

    or

    By continuing, you accept our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and that your data is stored in the USA.