In the next article we are going to take a look at Rstudio. This is a integrated development environment (IDE) for the programming language R, dedicated to statistical computing, data mining, biomedical research and financial mathematics. RStudio is a set of built-in tools, designed to help the user be more productive with R. It includes a console, an editor with syntax highlighting that supports direct code execution, and a variety of robust tools for plotting, visualizing history, debug and manage your workspace.
RStudio has versions available for Windows, Mac and Gnu / Linux systems or for browsers connected to RStudio Server or RStudio Server Pro (Debian / Ubuntu, RedHat / CentOS, and SUSE Linux). Only the desktop version is free. RStudio is on a mission to provide the statistical computing environment for R. It allows analysis and development so that anyone can analyze the data with R.
General characteristics of the RStudio IDE
- RStudio is the main integrated development environment for R. It is available in commercial and open source editions on the desktop (Windows, Mac, and Gnu / Linux).
- This IDE it was created only primarily for R. It is going to provide us with options for syntax, code completion, and smart indentation among others. Us it will allow to run R code directly from source editor. We can also quickly jump to function definitions.
- Will provide us help and documentation about R and the IDE.
- We can easily manage multiple working directories using projects. The program also includes a workspace browser and data viewer.
- It will provide us with a powerful possibility for content creation and debugging of the same. The debugger is interactive to quickly diagnose and fix errors. We will also find extensive tools for package development.
- RStudio has built-in support for Git and Subversion. It also supports the creation of HTML, PDF, Word documents and slide shows. We will find the possibility of working with interactive graphics with Shiny and ggvis.
For know more about the features of this IDE, you can consult the list of these that they offer in the project website.
Install RStudio prerequisites
To install RStudio on Ubuntu 18.04 first we will need to install the r-base package. Open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and write in it:
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install r-base
We can download the RStudio system for Ubuntu as a .DEB package. The most comfortable way to install the DEB file in Ubuntu, for my taste, is by using the gdebi command. In case gdebi is not available on your system, you can install it by running the following command in the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T):
sudo apt install gdebi-core
Then navigate with your web browser to the official page to download R Studio. Once there, download the latest Ubuntu / Debian RStudio * .deb package available.
At the time of writing this document, the package for Ubuntu 18.04 is not yet available. If when you try to download it, it is still not available, download the Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial package.
Install RStudio on Ubuntu
At this point, we are ready to install RStudio on our Ubuntu 18.04 system. Run the following command with gdebi from the location where you have the downloaded package saved. Make sure to replace the package name if the version is different. In the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T), following the instructions in this example, you will have to type:
sudo gdebi rstudio-xenial-1.1.456-amd64.deb
When the system prompts you, press "s”To continue with the installation. Once the RStudio installation is complete on your Ubuntu system, you can start it by running the following command in the same terminal:
rstudio
Obviously, you will also be able to search your start menu and start RStudio by clicking on its icon correspondent:
Uninstall RStudio
For remove this IDE from our system operational, we will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and in it write the following command:
sudo dpkg -r rstudio
For more information about this project, you can check your web page.