R help - Aug 2007 - Very new - beginners questions

Dear all,
   
  
I have 4 sites and want to determine how different they are from each other. For
this I have decided to use R though it seems a bit daunting to learn.
  I have read data in from a CSV the structure is :
   
   Species1 Species2 Species3
  
Site1 4 4  7  
Site2 3 1  0
Site3 0 99  6
Site4 75 3  33
  
There are many more species than shown above this is just an example. Here are
the questions.
   
  How do I read one row of data so as to load site2 into a variable called
site2?
  
Once I plot a graph using ordiplot how do I extract it from R so that I can put
it into a Word for Windows document?
   
  Once I have the data in varables I hope to use designdist and Sørensen to
discover diversity indices. I had a crack at this once but because I had sites
as the columns it didn't work. Now that I think I have the data correct I
can proceed.
   
  x Input data (this will be the whole data set that I read into my variable
'allSites' from a CSV.)?
  
The variables for Sørensen will contain terms J for shared quantity, A and B for
totals, N for the number of rows (sites) and P for the number of columns
(species) and 'Binary' as the term.
   
  How do I get the shared number of species for each row?
   
  Probably very beginner type questions but I want to get on an haven't yet
found the answers in my trawl throgh the help. Is there a book that I can buy to
learn R?
   
  All the best,
Richard Price
MSc student University Birmingham.



	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi.
You should study "An Introduction to R" manual.
It is installed with R in PDF format and is accessible from the menu (Help
-> Manuals (in PDF)  -> )
There are several links in the R web site.
Go to http://www.r-project.org/ and see links under the word
"Documentation"
in the left frame.
There are some contributed documents:
http://cran.r-project.org/other-docs.html

Array manipulations are described in the chapter 5 of the Introduction.
The plot window has its own menu allowing using of the Windows clipboard
(you didn't describe your system, but "Word for Windows" suggests
you're on
Windows).


Richard Price-4 wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
>   
> I have 4 sites and want to determine how different they are from each
> other. For this I have decided to use R though it seems a bit daunting to
> learn.
>   I have read data in from a CSV the structure is :
>    
>    Species1 Species2 Species3
>   
> Site1 4 4  7  
> Site2 3 1  0
> Site3 0 99  6
> Site4 75 3  33
>   
> There are many more species than shown above this is just an example. Here
> are the questions.
>    
>   How do I read one row of data so as to load site2 into a variable called
> site2?
>   
> Once I plot a graph using ordiplot how do I extract it from R so that I
> can put it into a Word for Windows document?
>    
>   Once I have the data in varables I hope to use designdist and S?rensen
> to discover diversity indices. I had a crack at this once but because I
> had sites as the columns it didn't work. Now that I think I have the
data
> correct I can proceed.
>    
>   x Input data (this will be the whole data set that I read into my
> variable 'allSites' from a CSV.)?
>   
> The variables for S?rensen will contain terms J for shared quantity, A and
> B for totals, N for the number of rows (sites) and P for the number of
> columns (species) and 'Binary' as the term.
>    
>   How do I get the shared number of species for each row?
>    
>   Probably very beginner type questions but I want to get on an haven't
> yet found the answers in my trawl throgh the help. Is there a book that I
> can buy to learn R?
>    
>   All the best,
> Richard Price
> MSc student University Birmingham.
> 
> 
-- 
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Hi

r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch napsal dne 13.08.2007 14:04:50:
> Dear all,
> 
> 
> I have 4 sites and want to determine how different they are from each 
other. 
> For this I have decided to use R though it seems a bit daunting to 
learn.
>   I have read data in from a CSV the structure is :
> 
>    Species1 Species2 Species3
> 
> Site1 4 4  7 
> Site2 3 1  0
> Site3 0 99  6
> Site4 75 3  33
> 
> There are many more species than shown above this is just an example. 
Here are
> the questions.
> 
>   How do I read one row of data so as to load site2 into a variable 
called site2?

?read.table and other read..... commands. Do not work with variables but 
with data frames. 
> 
> Once I plot a graph using ordiplot how do I extract it from R so that I 
can 
> put it into a Word for Windows document?
1. save a graph from menu
2. use ?png, ?jpeg and others to see how to output graph to files 
(devices)

> 
>   Once I have the data in varables I hope to use designdist and S?rensen 
to 
> discover diversity indices. I had a crack at this once but because I had 
sites
> as the columns it didn't work. Now that I think I have the data correct
I can proceed.
> 
>   x Input data (this will be the whole data set that I read into my 
variable 
> 'allSites' from a CSV.)?
> 
> The variables for S?rensen will contain terms J for shared quantity, A 
and B 
> for totals, N for the number of rows (sites) and P for the number of 
columns 
> (species) and 'Binary' as the term.
> 
>   How do I get the shared number of species for each row?
> 
>   Probably very beginner type questions but I want to get on an haven't
yet 
> found the answers in my trawl throgh the help. Is there a book that I 
can buy 
> to learn R?
look at CRAN. You can find various books from beginners to quite advanced. 
e.g. P.Dalgaard Introductory statistics with R isd quite good for first 
steps. Or you can consult Rtips from Paul Johnson. (Just type statsrus 
into Google). Good idea is also to look into posting guide.

Regards
Petr
> 
>   All the best,
> Richard Price
> MSc student University Birmingham.
> 
> 
> 
>    [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide 
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

Hi Richard,

No specific answers for your data questions but for
learning R there are any number of resources.

There are links to references for books and a large
number of on-line materials on the R website.  Have a
look at the list on the bottom left of the screen for
"books" and "other" which leads to "contributed
documentation". 

 Books by Dalgaard, Verzani and Crawley all get good
reviews. 

In the contributed documents area "Using R for Data
Analysis and Graphics - Introduction, Examples and
Commentary?  by John Maindonald  and "Kickstarting R"
by Jim Lemon are both very useful.

I have also found that while An Introduction to R is
invaluable it is best to download it and keep it as a
pdf or a hard copy.  Also it is better as a 'second
intro' after you have looked at some of the books or
other supporting documentation.

Don't forget to browse the FAQs.  They answer some of
the more vexing questions about R very well.

(Oh if you want to move a graph from R to Word in
Windows just right click on the graph and copy it.)
--- Richard Price <freerichard at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>    
>   
> I have 4 sites and want to determine how different
> they are from each other. For this I have decided to
> use R though it seems a bit daunting to learn.
>   I have read data in from a CSV the structure is :
>    
>    Species1 Species2 Species3
>   
> Site1 4 4  7  
> Site2 3 1  0
> Site3 0 99  6
> Site4 75 3  33
>   
> There are many more species than shown above this is
> just an example. Here are the questions.
>    
>   How do I read one row of data so as to load site2
> into a variable called site2?
>   
> Once I plot a graph using ordiplot how do I extract
> it from R so that I can put it into a Word for
> Windows document?
>    
>   Once I have the data in varables I hope to use
> designdist and S?rensen to discover diversity
> indices. I had a crack at this once but because I
> had sites as the columns it didn't work. Now that I
> think I have the data correct I can proceed.
>    
>   x Input data (this will be the whole data set that
> I read into my variable 'allSites' from a CSV.)?
>   
> The variables for S?rensen will contain terms J for
> shared quantity, A and B for totals, N for the
> number of rows (sites) and P for the number of
> columns (species) and 'Binary' as the term.
>    
>   How do I get the shared number of species for each
> row?
>    
>   Probably very beginner type questions but I want
> to get on an haven't yet found the answers in my
> trawl throgh the help. Is there a book that I can
> buy to learn R?
>    
>   All the best,
> Richard Price
> MSc student University Birmingham.
> 
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> > ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained,
> reproducible code.
>