Ask HN: Good resources for base (non-tidyverse) R?

3 points·Eugeleo··3 comments

Hey, my new lab uses R a lot, but most of their packages (some of which I'll be contributing to) don't use tidyverse. However, most of the recommended R books use it---those that I saw recommended here on HN, at least.

Are there any good learning materials which don't rely on the tidyverse set of packages? I have experience with Python, Haskell, and other languages, but am completely new to R.

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Prepare for some frustration while you get used to the language. Resources:

Advanced R - http://adv-r.had.co.nz/

R Packages - http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/intro.html

I also write and contribute to R packages at work and these two books have been really useful. That being said, Advanced R isn't the best read because a lot of it is just listing exceptions and strange behaviour of the language but it's useful info, especially the chapters on non-standard evaluation and the OO systems. Similarly, figuring out how the package system works can take a bit of experimenting - just stick with it, try things out and pay attention to how things are done in the existing codebase.

Also, your colleagues are right - tidyverse isn't suitable for heavy use in packages, it's for interactive use and EDA.

Thanks! I heard about advanced R, but as the author is also the author of the tidyverse packages, I feared he might be inclined to use them in the examples etc. I'm glad to hear it's more generally oriented book.

I can also recommend reading R Inferno:

https://www.burns-stat.com/documents/books/the-r-inferno/

It lists a lot exceptions and gotchas but it motivates them and it definitely made me a better R programmer. It’s a quick read too!

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