Introduction to Data Analysis

Preface

Here find a brief written and video introduction to computer software for doing data analysis. For a relatively small investment of time you gain an introduction to some of the same tools used by data scientists as they analyze data. And all for free.

Although the following guidance for doing basic analyses does not involve programming, consisting only of simple function calls, it introduces analysis in the context of one of the most popular languages of data science: R. Specifically, the guidance presented here focuses on using my lessR package, part of the R ecosystem.

The following content includes both written and video instruction. Also, as you progress through this material, you will encounter some numbered lines of R instructions labeled Example, which appear as follows.

Example 0.1 R stuff

We learn by doing. Run these instructions in R as you read through the following material and you will learn the basics of how data scientists do data science computations.

↪ If you want to get it, you have to do it.