Graphing Data with R: An Introduction by John Jay Hilfiger

by John Jay Hilfiger

Complex relationships are often more easily grasped by looking at a picture, or a graph, than they might be if one tried to absorb the nuances in a verbal description or discern the relationships in columns of numbers. This book is about using graphical methods to understand complex data by highlighting important relationships and trends, reducing the data to simpler forms, and making it possible to take in a lot of numbers at a glance.The tool set used to accomplish the task is the free programming language and library of programs called "R." The book explains, in plain language, how to download R to a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, how to enter your own data or to copy publicly available data from many web sites, and how to understand, use, and produce effective graphs.

Genres: Computer Science

Paperback

First published November 13, 2015

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a boring read, I enjoyed it, but the book does only one thing well: it will make you comfortable charting the most commonly used in stats graphs. I desired the book could show more techniques on how to convert between various data storage (or representation) modes as it is likely my data could be produced differently or stored in odd formats.
Another snug a reader may hit is that too many packages used in the book do not work with the most recent version of R (3.2.2 as of the time of writing).
The book could include a chapter on how to package the graphs into presentable formats, e.g. made it a publication or an infographic.
Lastly, sadly, the animated graphics were not covered, but I suspect they constitute a necessary part.

[Oconnor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its hard to believe that a book about R programming could read so easily. At first I thought that the graphs discussed were a little elementary. However, I got hooked on the author's command of the R packages and started keeping a list of the new-to-me packages and data sets. There were a lot! In addition, the appendix is awesome with hints about how to trouble shoot troubling R code as well as data resources and an index to packages and commands included in the book. And, there are fun R exercises with each chapter with answers in the back. An R lover's dream!