Basic R programming, 4hp

Prior knowledge

Admitted to a postgraduate program. The course is suitable for all graduate students. No programming experience is required, but students are recommended to possess knowledge in basic mathematical statistics.

Objective, including learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide basic knowledge of the R language and on the skills of writing R scripts for practical applications. The course will focus on the core of R programming language, and data manipulation with R.
Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:

• master the basic knowledge of R language,
• master functions commonly used for data manipulation,
• generate basic descriptive statistics, conduct a simple multiple linear regression analysis and specification test, and
• produce different types of data plot.

The course consists of lectures, computer exercises and self-study.

Content

• The course begins with an orientation connected to the following concepts:
• What is R and what can R do?
• An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for R

Further, the course covers programming of R, specifically:

• Data types and data structures: vector, list, matrix, data frame, factor
• Import data and write out data
• Data manipulation
• Control flow
• Write simple function
• Plot
• Regression analysis

In computer exercise, students will write R scripts to solve specific problems by using the knowledge from the lecturers. Exercise materials are provided by the lecturer.