install.packages("tidyverse")Setting up your computer
This topic is covered on Jan 7.
In order to begin producing objective evidence about inequality, you will first need to prepare your computer to analyze data.
Install statistical software: R
We will write code in the R programming language. R is available as open-source software at https://cran.r-project.org/. The first step to set up your computer is to install R.
Install the interface RStudio
We will work with R using an interface called RStudio, which makes it easy to write code and see results all in one place. You should install RStudio Desktop, which is available to download here: https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/
Install the tidyverse package
Many R functions are made freely available in open-source packages that contain sets of functions designed to carry out common tasks. One package we will use often is the tidyverse, which contains functions to manipulate and visualize data. To install tidyverse, first open RStudio. Find the Console, which is a place where you can type code to immediately execute.
In the console type,
and press enter or return on your keyboard. This runs a line of code to install a set of software packages.
Install tinytex to produce PDF reports
Homework assignments will be submitted in PDF form. We will learn how to use RStudio to produce a PDF documents that embed your code, results, and written responses. In order to do so, your computer needs to have some version of LaTeX, which is software that typesets documents. Some versions of LaTeX are large and difficult to install. If you have never used LaTeX on your computer, we recommend that you install as follows: paste the code below into your R console and press enter or return to install a minimal version of the software.
install.packages("tinytex")
tinytex::install_tinytex()Students often find this step confusing, and computers present various errors. If you have an error, look on Piazza to see if anyone else has encountered your error. If not, then post a screenshot of your error on Piazza so we can help you to resolve the problem.
Support and guidance
Congratulations on preparing your computing environment!
Throughout the first part of the course, we will often use the online textbook R for Data Science by Hadley Wickham as a reference. The book will introduce how to work with data using R and RStudio. If you want additional guidance for setting up the software, see the Prerequisites section of R4DS. To learn more about RStudio, visit the RStudio User Guide.
Problem sets will be completed in Quarto documents, which enable you to embed code and results within a written PDF document. You will learn about this in the problem sets. See the Quarto tutorial for additional information.