R is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics that you can use to clean, analyze, and graph your data. It is widely used by researchers from diverse disciplines to estimate and display results and by teachers of statistics and research methods.

What can you do in R?

R can be used to do a variety of tasks — store data, analyze data, and create statistical models. Since data analysis and data mining are processes that require a variety of applications and ways to communicate, R is a perfect language to learn.

Why R is called R?

R was created by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and is currently developed by the R Development Core Team, of which Chambers is a member. R is named partly after the first names of the first two R authors and partly as a play on the name of S. R is a GNU project.