Installing R & RStudio

This page walks you through installing everything you need for the course. Do this before the first class if possible — but if you run into trouble, bring your laptop to Session 1 and we’ll help you get set up.

Step 1: Install R

R is the programming language we’ll use all term.

Go to https://cloud.r-project.org
Click the link for your operating system:
- Mac: Click “Download R for macOS,” then download the .pkg file that matches your Mac (Apple Silicon for M1/M2/M3 chips, Intel for older Macs). Not sure which you have? Click the Apple menu → “About This Mac” and look for “Chip.”
- Windows: Click “Download R for Windows” → “base” → “Download R” and run the .exe file.
- Chromebook: R doesn’t run natively on Chromebooks. Use Posit Cloud instead (free tier is fine for this course). Let Dr. Weston know if this is your setup.
Run the installer and accept all the defaults.

Step 2: Install RStudio

RStudio is the application you’ll actually work in. Think of R as the engine and RStudio as the car.

Go to https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/
Scroll down and download the free version for your operating system.
Run the installer and accept all the defaults.
Open RStudio (not R). You should see four panels.

Open RStudio, not R

After installation, you’ll have two applications: R and RStudio. Always open RStudio. You should never need to open R directly. If you see a plain white console with no panels, you opened the wrong one.

Step 3: Verify R works

In the Console panel (bottom-left in RStudio), type the following and press Enter:

1 + 1

If you see [1] 2, you’re good.

Step 4: Install required packages

Packages add extra tools to R. Copy and paste this entire block into the Console and press Enter:

install.packages(c(
  "tidyverse",
  "nycflights13",
  "palmerpenguins",
  "tidytext",
  "broom",
  "quarto"
))

This will take a few minutes and produce a lot of text — that’s normal. You only need to do this once.

If you see red text, don’t panic

R prints warnings and messages in red, but that doesn’t mean something went wrong. Look for the word “Error” specifically. Warnings like “package was built under R version…” are fine and can be ignored.

Step 5: Check that packages loaded

After installation finishes, run these lines one at a time:

library(tidyverse)
library(nycflights13)
library(palmerpenguins)

If each one loads without an error, you’re all set. You might see some messages — that’s fine.

Step 6: See your first data

Try this:

glimpse(mpg)

You should see a table with 234 rows and 11 columns of car fuel economy data. If you do, everything is working.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
“R is not recognized” or RStudio won’t open	Make sure you installed R first, then RStudio. RStudio needs R to run.
Package install fails with “non-zero exit status”	Try installing the problem package by itself: `install.packages("tidyverse")`. If it still fails, restart RStudio and try again.
`library(tidyverse)` gives an error	Run `install.packages("tidyverse")` in the Console — you may have skipped Step 4.
Everything is slow or freezing	Close other applications. Package installation is memory-intensive.
“There is no package called…”	Run `install.packages("package_name")` with the exact package name. Remember: `install.packages()` is for installing, `library()` is for loading. You install once, you load every session.
Mac asks for “Command Line Tools”	Click “Install” when prompted. This is normal on Macs and only happens once.
Windows gives a “Rtools” warning	You can ignore this for our course. Rtools is only needed for building packages from source, which we won’t do.

If you’re stuck, bring your laptop to class or email Dr. Weston. Installation issues are common and fixable — don’t stress about it.