Get Started with R Markdown Files in RStudio

Comprehensive Guide to R Markdown Files in RStudio

Introduction

Welcome to this comprehensive tutorial on R Markdown files in R programming! R Markdown is a powerful feature in RStudio that allows you to create interactive, dynamic reports and documentation by combining code, output, and narrative text. This tutorial will guide you through creating an R Markdown file, running code chunks, generating HTML output, and customizing the appearance of your document. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a solid foundation for using R Markdown in your projects.

As always, the video tutorial is at the bottom of this blog.

Creating a New R Project and R Markdown File

To begin, let’s create a new R project in RStudio:

1. Go to File > New Project.
2. Choose New Directory and select New Project.
3. Name your project, such as “R_Project_1”, and click Create Project.

Now that we have a new project let’s create an R Markdown file:

1. Go to File > New File and choose R Markdown.
2. Give your file a title and select the HTML output format.
3. Click OK.

Understanding R Markdown Structure

An R Markdown file typically contains three parts:

1. Metadata: This section, enclosed by three dashes (---), contains the document’s title, author, date, and output format.
2. Markdown: This is the main body of the document, which includes headings, text, links, and other formatting elements. You can create different levels of headings using hash symbols (#). For example, # Heading 1, ## Heading 2, and ### Heading 3.
3. Code chunks: Enclosed by three backticks (```), code chunks allow you to embed R code directly into the document. To create a code chunk, use three backticks followed by {r}, then close the chunk with three backticks. For example: ```{r} # Your R code here ```

You can run individual code chunks by clicking the Play button next to each one. As you run the chunks, the output will be displayed in the R Markdown file itself.

Customizing Code Chunk Appearance

R Markdown allows you to customize code chunks’ appearance and output. For example, you can:

• Control whether code or output is displayed in the final document using chunk options like echo and results. For example, to hide the code but show the output, use echo=FALSE.
• Change the size and appearance of plots generated within code chunks by modifying the fig.width, fig.height, and fig.align chunk options.
• Add captions to figures and tables using the fig.cap and table.cap chunk options.

For a full list of available chunk options, visit the official R Markdown documentation.

Generating HTML Output and Other Formats

Once you finish your R Markdown file, you can generate an HTML output by clicking the Knit button. This will save your file and render it as an HTML document, which can be viewed in a web browser or shared with others. R Markdown also supports other output formats like PDF and Word documents. To change the output format, modify the output field in the metadata section of your R Markdown file. For example:

---
title: "My R Markdown Document"
output: pdf_document
---

Customizing the Appearance of R Markdown Documents

You can customize the appearance of your R Markdown documents using CSS for HTML output, LaTeX templates for PDF output, and reference.docx files.

Introduction

Welcome to the next lesson in R programming! In this tutorial, we’ll explore R Markdown files, a powerful feature in RStudio that allows you to create interactive, dynamic reports and documentation. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to create your first R Markdown file, run code chunks, and generate an HTML output.

Creating a New R Project and R Markdown File

To begin, let’s create a new R project in RStudio:

1. Go to File > New Project.
2. Choose New Directory and select New Project.
3. Name your project, such as “R_Project_1”, and click Create Project.

Now that we have a new project let’s create an R Markdown file:

1. Go to File > New File and choose R Markdown.
2. Give your file a title and select the HTML output format.
3. Click OK.

Understanding R Markdown Structure

An R Markdown file typically contains three parts:

1. Metadata: This section, enclosed by three dashes (---), contains the document’s title, author, date, and output format.
2. Markdown: This is the main body of the document, which includes headings, text, links, and other formatting elements.
3. Code chunks: Enclosed by three backticks (```), code chunks allow you to embed R code directly into the document.

You can run individual code chunks by clicking the Play button next to each one. As you run the chunks, the R Markdown file will display the output.

Generating HTML Output

Once you finish your R Markdown file, you can generate an HTML output by clicking the Knit button. This will save your file and render it as an HTML document, which can be viewed in a web browser or shared with others.

Resources

To learn more about R programming, consider checking out these books:

• Machine Learning with R
• Extending Power BI with Python and R: Ingest, transform, enrich, and visualize data using the power of analytical languages
• The Book of R – A First Course in Programming and Statistics

Random Facts about R

• R was created in 1993 by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman.
• It’s named after the first names of its creators, as well as being a play on the S programming language, which it was based on.
• R is open-source and maintained by the R Development Core Team.

For more tutorials and tips, don’t forget to visit my YouTube channel Cradle to Graver.

Video