R for the Rest of Us:
Unexpected Ways Anyone Can Use R

Most people think of R as a language for hardcore statistical analysis — but this book flips that outdated perception right on its head. From making slideshows and websites to auto-generating reports, R for the Rest of Us reveals R’s surprising treasure trove of use cases. Whether you’re an R novice or a seasoned veteran, you’ll find new tools and techniques that will elevate your data game and transform your work.

Each chapter focuses on an innovative R programmer who achieved something novel with the language, then shows you exactly how they did it — complete with examples of the code they used. You’ll meet boundary breakers who tapped R to create stunning visualizations for Scientific American, to craft a custom theme for BBC graphics, to track the spread of COVID-19, and more. As you explore R’s many non-statistical applications and automations, you’ll follow along with step-by-step programming instructions for effectively replicating the methods used in over a dozen real-world R projects, including map making, parameterized reporting, and working with US Census Bureau data.

You’ll learn how to:

• Make high-quality data visualizations, graphics, maps, and tables in R

• Use R Markdown and Quarto to generate reports and deploy interactive websites

• Automate tedious tasks using packages others have built, or ones you develop yourself

• Work with R packages like googlesheets4 to automatically import data from the internet

Best of all, you’ll do it without performing any mathematical analysis more complex than calculating averages. Because there’s R for serious statistical number crunching, then there’s R for the Rest of Us.