2  R Basics

2.1 Objectives

To provide a targeted introduction to R, for those needing an introduction or a review.

We will cover:

• core object types (atomic, vectors, lists, complex)
• detailed survey of characters and “strings”
• detailed coverage of list types
• detailed coverage of matrix types
• introduction to the data.frame
• output data in the form of a data.frame
• output data in the form of a plot (ggplot2 object)

The objective is to introduce how these core object types behave, and use them to store basic quantities required in text analysis.

2.2 Methods

The methods are primarily about how to use R, including:

We will build up the basic objects needed for understand the core structures needed in R to hold texts (character), meta-data (data.frame), tokens (lists), dictionaries (lists), and document-feature matrices (matrices).

2.3 Examples

Examples working through the construction of each text object container using the types above.

2.4 Issues

Could have used “tidy” approaches.

Sparsity.

Indexing.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could nest some objects inside others?

2.5 Further Reading

Some resources on R.

2.6 Exercises

Add some here.