Rewrite-R-ecology-lesson
- R is a programming language and software used to run commands in that language
- RStudio is software to make it easier to write and run code in R
- Use R Projects to keep your work organized and self-contained
- Write your code in scripts for reproducibility and portability
- the
ggplot() function initiates a plot, and geom_ functions add representations of your data
- use
aes() when mapping a variable from the data to a part of the plot
- use
scale_ functions to modify the scales used to represent variables
- use premade
theme_ functions to broadly change appearance, and the theme() function to fine-tune
- start simple and build your plots iteratively
- functions like
head(), str(), and summary() are useful for exploring data.frames
- most things in R are vectors, vectors stitched together, or functions
- make sure to use
class() to check vector types, especially when using new functions
- factors can be useful, but behave differently from character vectors
- use
filter() to subset rows and select() to subset columns
- build up pipelines one step at a time before assigning the result
- it is often best to keep components of dates separate until needed, then use
mutate() to make a date column
-
group_by() can be used with summarize() to collapse rows or mutate() to keep the same number of rows
-
pivot_wider() and pivot_longer() are powerful for reshaping data, but you should plan out how to use them thoughtfully
- it is always good to do preliminary investigations of new data
- there are often many ways to achieve the same goal, describing them with plain English or pseudocode can help you choose an approach
- the
read_delimited() function can read tabular data from multiple file formats
- joins are powerful ways to combine multiple datasets
- it is a good idea to plan out the steps of your data cleaning and combining
