Introduction to linear regression analysis

Author

Boyko Amarov

Published

April 11, 2023

Setup

The exercise classes require a minimal software setup:

  1. Open https://cran.r-project.org/ and you will find links to R builds for different operating systems. Click on the link matching your operating system and choose the latest version of R. When using the Windows operating system you will see a link “Install R for the first time”. Click on this link and then download R installer. Run the installer and accept the default settings.

  2. After installing R, open https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/. If the web page recognizes your operating system you will see a download button (right side of the page) for R studio. If the button does not appear, scroll down the page and find the installer appropriate for your operating system.

  3. Open R Studio on your computer and create a new R Markdown file. Find the file drop down menu on the top-left part of the interface, select “New file”, then find “R Markdown” and click on it. If this is the first time you create a R Markdown file, R Studio will ask you to install a number of packages. Confirm this and wait for the packages to download and install. Click “OK” on the dialogue button, and you will see a text file with a simple R Markdown template that demonstrates some basic functionality.

  4. In this exercise class we use a lot of functions from the tidyverse system and several other packages. In order to access these you need the to install this package. Find the R console in R studio and paste the following line on the command line. Press enter to run it. This will install some of the necessary packages on your system.

install.packages(c("tidyverse", "broom", "patchwork", "skimr"))

Optional: more on R Markdown: https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/lesson-1.html

Optional: a base R cheatsheet: https://www.datacamp.com/cheat-sheet/getting-started-r