How I use R

Contents

• Data Journalists Using R
• Organising Projects
• Reproducibility
• Finding Out How to ...
• Bonus - Nice Packages

These slides: source (Slidify / R Markdown), view online

• Buzzfeed
• Five Thirty Eight

• Lots more...

• "Resources for doing data journalism with R (rddj.info)"

• Buzzfeed - Peter Aldhous and Charles Seife
• "Data Journalism Awards Data Visualization of the Year, 2016"
• The Story: Spies in the Skies
• All on Github - https://github.com/BuzzFeedNews
• source: http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2016/04/the-fbis-aerial-surveillance-program-visualized-with-r.html

• Talk from useR! 2016 conference (17 mins + Q&A)
  http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2016/07/data-journalism-with-r-at-538.html
• Well worth seeing
• 12 mins in - various examples of using R

• Keep original data somewhere separate
  • e.g. "originals" & "processed" directories
• Start with a Rmarkdown file
• Work on the command line then move code to file
• Aim for readable code
• Create functions to make code easier to read
• Use very clear variable & function names
  • Don't worry if they are too long
• Use git / github to version your code

So...

• when I make a mistake I can re-do the work instantly
• others can check how I did things (and if it was right)
• so future me can check how I did things
• so future me can re-use my work for new data / project

• Try to eliminate manual steps (within reason)
• Use package "checkpoint" - to ensure you always use the same version of packages, even years later
• Keep your code somewhere - github?
• Include your copy of original data
• Document

Searching for "R" can be hard

Google actually doesn't do too bad a job
try adding "package" if you're not getting good results

Rseek - dedicated search for R related things

http://rseek.org/ rseek: "birmingham -alabama"

Use Advanced Search - there's a link if you do a normal search

https://github.com/search/advanced

Is there anything about Birmingham?
Birmingham extension:R extension:rmd

Can you use shapefiles in R?
extension:rmd extension:R (".shp" OR shapefile)

Are there any shapefiles for Birmingham? extension:R birmingham (".shp" OR shapefile) NOT alabama

How do I use "datatable" from package "DT"
datatable library(DT) extension:R extension:rmd

What if someone copied your story?

• All of it, exactly?
• A paragraph?
• Rephrased it?
• Used the same themes?
• etc.

What if someone copied your script?

• All of it, exactly?
• A function?
• Rephrased it?
• Used the same themes?
• etc.

What if someone copied your script?

• All of it, exactly?
• A function?
• Rephrased it?
• Used the same themes?
• etc.

Where is the line for code?

• Sometimes there is a licence, often not.

• dplyr - transforming data
• data.table - Fast handling of larger datasets (10's of Millions)
• DT - nice display of tables in HTML

   dynamic_table <- DT::datatable(iris)
   DT::saveWidget(dynamic_table, 'example.html')
   cat('<iframe src="example.html" height=20 style="height:20"> </iframe>')

Hello