r-installation-instructions.qmd

---
title: "Install R & RStudio"
---

You may already have R installed on your computer. However, if the installation is one year older or later, you should upgrade it. This the beauty and drawback of R (yay for new functionality, boo to the inconvenience). R is updated frequently, usually several times per year. Not every update is important, but over time, older versions of R will cause you problems because they will work poorly with installed packages. New packages will not work at all with older version of R and older packages will have problems, requiring to also install older package versions. This is a pain to manage; its easiest to keep R updated. 

## Install R

First, navigate to the Cloud mirror of the R Project for Statistical computing, and download [R](https://cran.rstudio.com/): 


```{r, echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics(here::here("images", "install_R_3.png"))
```
#### Windows

Use the link circled in red regardless if you have R installed or not. It's just easier. 

```{r, echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics(here::here("images", "install_R_win.jpg"))
```

#### Mac

Download the installation bundle. Check that your operating system version is compatible (the text to the right of the download link will indicate this). 

```{r, echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics(here::here("images", "install_R_mac.jpg"))
```

Once the installation file is downloaded, open it and follow the installation instructions, accepting the default installation settings. 

## Install RStudio

You can [download RStudio](https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/) from the Posit website. Pick the version appropriate for your operation system and follow the installation instructions. 

You do not need to follow "Step 1: install R" indicated on the Posit site if you already installed R following the directions above. 

## Test your Installation

1. Open RStudio on your personal or work computer. It should look very similar to Posit Cloud. 
1. Run a command in the console to make sure all installed properly. 
1. Install the Tidyverse packages: `install.packages("tidyverse")` (this will take a few minutes)