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Coding in R - Basics

Date: 17. September 2025
Speaker: Luke Günther, Project S, SFB 1252
Duration: 14:00 - 15:30

Overview

Introduction to R programming for research applications. This foundational workshop covers the R environment, basic programming concepts, data handling, and best practices for reproducible code.

Learning Objectives

  • Set up and navigate the R programming environment
  • Understand basic R data structures and operations
  • Import and export data in various formats
  • Use essential R packages for research
  • Write clean, reproducible R code
  • Debug common R programming errors

Topics Covered

  • R and RStudio installation and setup
  • Basic syntax, variables, and data types
  • Vectors, lists, data frames, and matrices
  • Data import/export (CSV, Excel, databases)
  • Essential packages: tidyverse, readr, readxl
  • Basic data manipulation and cleaning
  • Writing functions and scripts
  • Code organization and documentation
  • Debugging strategies

Prerequisites

No prior programming experience required. Participants should have R and RStudio installed on their laptops.

Materials

Materials will be provided during the workshop, including:

  • Installation guide
  • Hands-on exercises
  • Sample datasets
  • Reference materials

Setup Instructions

Before the workshop, please:

  1. Install R from https://cran.r-project.org/
  2. Install RStudio Desktop from https://posit.co/downloads/
  3. Test that both programs open successfully

Additional Resources

Follow-up

This workshop prepares participants for the advanced "Computational Reproducibility Session using R" workshop later in the semester.