The R Project for Statistical Computing is a free, open source statistical computing language that is popular among researchers in many fields.
The learning curve for true understanding is steep, but specific tasks (e.g., importing files from other statistical software) are often quite easy because of packages that can be created by anybody. R undergoes rapid development and improvement. Tutorials even a year old may be out of date.
Note that RStudio is currently in the process of changing names to Posit. Various tutorials may reference one or the other, but both are acceptable at this time.
See the slides from our Getting Started with R (pdf) workshop for an overview and recommendations.
No installations needed; runs in your web browser.
See also R for Data Science: Exercise Solutions by Jeffrey B. Arnold
Many people will ultimately learn both. But, they are similar enough that you do not want to learn them at the same time--it can get confusing to switch back and forth. Knowing either one will help you learn the other. So, just pick one and get started!
If you already know another statistical software or programming language, you might try these first.
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