DATA MINING Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
Desktop Survival Project Home List of Figures List of Tables Data Mining Data Mining Data Mining with Rattle Introduction Data Transform Explore A Model Building Framework Unsupervised Modelling Two Class Models Multi Class Models Regression Models Text Mining Evaluation and Deployment Moving into R Troubleshooting R for the Data Miner R Data Graphics in R Understanding Data Preparing Data Building Models Evaluating Models Algorithms Apriori Bagging Bayes Classifier Boosting Cluster Analysis Conditional Trees Hierarchical Clustering K-Means K-Nearest Neighbours Linear Models Logistic Regression Neural Networks Support Vector Machines Text Mining Open Products AlphaMiner Borgelt Data Mining Suite KNime R Rattle Weka Closed Products C4.5 Clementine Equbits Foresight GhostMiner InductionEngine ODM Enterprise Miner Statistica Data Miner TreeNet Virtual Predict Appendicies Glossary Bibliography Index

Basic Command Line

R is essentially a command line tool that is usually initiated by running the command R in a command line window (e.g., a gnome-terminal) on your system. When R is ready to accept your instructions it will issue the > prompt, and then wait for your input. Figure  shows that a user has invoked the nrow function with argument iris to find the number of rows in the iris dataset. R has responded with an answer of 150

Figure: The R Command Line is the basic interface to R.

[width=0.8]r-cli

The basic MS/Windows command line GUI provides a menu-based system to access some of the meta-functionality of R, such as to load and install packages. By default it uses a multiple document interface (MDI) so that all R windows open up in a single Rgui frame. To use a Single Document Interface (SDI) choose the appropriate option under Single or multiple windows, which you can find under the GUI preferences of the Edit menu. Then save the configuration in the default Rconsole file, and restart R.

Figure: The R interface under MS/Windows, with the default MDI display.

[width=0.8, trim=0 40 100 0, clip=true]r-ms

To interrupt a running R command simply type Ctrl-C. To exit from R use the q function:

> q()
Save workspace image? [y/n/c]: n

You are given the option to save all of the currently defined objects (the workspace image), which will automatically be reloaded next time you start R from this same location (directory). If you choose to do so R will save the workspace image to a file called .RData.

Support further development through the purchase of the PDF version of the book.
Brought to you by Togaware.