Getting Help in R

Once R is installed, there is a comprehensive built-in help system. At the program's command prompt you can use any of the following:

help.start()   # general help
help(foo)      # help about function foo
?foo           # same thing
apropos("foo") # list all functions containing string foo
example(foo)   # show an example of function foo

# search for foo in help manuals and archived mailing lists
RSiteSearch("foo")

# get vignettes on using installed packages
vignette()      # show available vingettes
vignette("foo") # show specific vignette

Sample Datasets

R comes with a number of sample datasets that you can experiment with. Type data( ) to see the available datasets. The results will depend on which packages you have loaded. Type help(datasetname) for details on a sample dataset.

To Practice

This free interactive coursecovers the basics of R.