Chapter 6 Programming in R

After learning the basics, programming in R is the next big step towards attaining coding nirvana. In R this freedom is gained by being able to wield and manipulate code to get it to do exactly what you want, rather than contort, bend and restrict yourself to what others have built. It’s worth remembering that many packages are written with the goal of solving a problem the author had. Your problem may be similar, but not exactly the same. In such cases you could contort, bend and restrict your data so that it works with the package, or you could build your own functions that solve your specific problems.

But there are already a vast number of R packages available, surely more than enough to cover everything you could possibly want to do? Why then, would you ever need to use R as a programming language? Why not just stick to the functions from a package? Well, in some cases you’ll want to customise those existing functions to suit your specific needs. Or you may want to implement an approach that’s hot off the press or you’ve come up with an entirely novel idea, which means there won’t be any pre-existing packages that work for you. Both of these are not particularly common early-on when you start using R, but you may well find as you progress, the reliance on existing functions becomes a little limiting. In addition, if you ever start using more advanced statistical approaches (i.e. Bayesian inference coded through Stan or JAGS) then an understanding of basic programming constructs, especially loops, becomes fundamental.

In this Chapter we’ll explore the basics of the programming side of R. Even if you never create your own function, you will at the very least use functions on a daily basis. Pulling back the curtain and showing the nitty-gritty of how these work will hopefully, in the worst case, help your confidence and in the best case, provide a starting point for doing some clever coding.