R help - Apr 2006 - Were to find appropriate functions for a given task in R

This is a generic request concerning were to look for finding
appropriate information on a precise procedure in R.
I’m using R for teaching introductory statistics and my students are
learning how to deal with it. However, I find it difficult to locate
some of the procedures. For instance, for basic crosstabulation, it is
obvious that basic functions as table, ftable, and prop.table can be
used. But there is a CrossTable function that is very useful. This is
hidden in gmodels and gregmisc, as far as I’ve been able to explore the
packages. However, there is no way (unless I sit down to r-help for
hours) to be sure if there is some other place in which a very useful
function is hidden for table manipulation (for instance controlling for
other variables). This is only an example. But there are many more. Were
to look for CI for proportions? I can find it but it is not easy.

I understand R is more appropriate for difficult statistical procedures
(glm and similar), BUT students need to start somewhere….

My specific claim is about the need for a sort of guide in which the
different procedures could be classified (and some redundancies could be
deleted…..by the way). Is there something similar around? Any project
working on this? Any clue for?

If not, I would suggest starting some kind of easy reference based on
the problem to solve. This could indicate were to look for. Last day I
find in package vcd that a function exist for testing the
goodness-of-fit of a sample to binomial and other distributions….but
this was VERY difficult to locate. 

Any way, as usual, any indication will be very useful (spaecially for my
students!!!)



Albert Sorribas
Professor of Statistics and Operational Research
Departament de Ciències Mèdiques Bàsiques
Universitat de Lleida
Montserrat Roig 2
25008-Lleida (Espanya)
web.udl.es/Biomath/Group
 


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

1. Check out the R reference card at
http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/Rpad-refcard.pdf . There are also several others
available from the CRAN website.

2. Check out TINN-R, a Windows text/R code editor that integrates the above
and provides function "tips" inline to give the syntax of many R
functions.

3. ?help.search

4. ?RSiteSearch (or search CRAN directly using Jon Baron's search engine).

These do not eliminate the problem, but hopefully mitigate it. Given that
there are several thousand R functions spread among hundreds of packages at
at least three separate repositories (CRAN, BioConductor, and Omegahat),
it's clearly a nontrivial issue. But that's why Google and other search
services are multibillion dollar companies.

HTH

Cheers,
Bert
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Albert Sorribas
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:32 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] Were to find appropriate functions for a given task in R
> 
> This is a generic request concerning were to look for finding
> appropriate information on a precise procedure in R.
> Im using R for teaching introductory statistics and my students are
> learning how to deal with it. However, I find it difficult to locate
> some of the procedures. For instance, for basic crosstabulation, it is
> obvious that basic functions as table, ftable, and prop.table can be
> used. But there is a CrossTable function that is very useful. This is
> hidden in gmodels and gregmisc, as far as Ive been able to 
> explore the
> packages. However, there is no way (unless I sit down to r-help for
> hours) to be sure if there is some other place in which a very useful
> function is hidden for table manipulation (for instance 
> controlling for
> other variables). This is only an example. But there are many 
> more. Were
> to look for CI for proportions? I can find it but it is not easy.
> 
> I understand R is more appropriate for difficult statistical 
> procedures
> (glm and similar), BUT students need to start somewhere.
> 
> My specific claim is about the need for a sort of guide in which the
> different procedures could be classified (and some 
> redundancies could be
> deleted..by the way). Is there something similar around? Any project
> working on this? Any clue for?
> 
> If not, I would suggest starting some kind of easy reference based on
> the problem to solve. This could indicate were to look for. Last day I
> find in package vcd that a function exist for testing the
> goodness-of-fit of a sample to binomial and other distributions.but
> this was VERY difficult to locate. 
> 
> Any way, as usual, any indication will be very useful 
> (spaecially for my
> students!!!)
> 
> 
> 
> Albert Sorribas
> Professor of Statistics and Operational Research
> Departament de Cihncies Mhdiques B`siques
> Universitat de Lleida
> Montserrat Roig 2
> 25008-Lleida (Espanya)
> web.udl.es/Biomath/Group
>  
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
>

you may find RSiteSearch() and help.search() functions useful for this 
purpose, considering usually different key words for the same topic.

Best,
Dimitris

----
Dimitris Rizopoulos
Ph.D. Student
Biostatistical Centre
School of Public Health
Catholic University of Leuven

Address: Kapucijnenvoer 35, Leuven, Belgium
Tel: +32/(0)16/336899
Fax: +32/(0)16/337015
Web: http://www.med.kuleuven.be/biostat/
     http://www.student.kuleuven.be/~m0390867/dimitris.htm


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Albert Sorribas" <albert.sorribas at cmb.udl.es>
To: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 5:31 PM
Subject: [R] Were to find appropriate functions for a given task in R


This is a generic request concerning were to look for finding
appropriate information on a precise procedure in R.
I'm using R for teaching introductory statistics and my students are
learning how to deal with it. However, I find it difficult to locate
some of the procedures. For instance, for basic crosstabulation, it is
obvious that basic functions as table, ftable, and prop.table can be
used. But there is a CrossTable function that is very useful. This is
hidden in gmodels and gregmisc, as far as I've been able to explore 
the
packages. However, there is no way (unless I sit down to r-help for
hours) to be sure if there is some other place in which a very useful
function is hidden for table manipulation (for instance controlling 
for
other variables). This is only an example. But there are many more. 
Were
to look for CI for proportions? I can find it but it is not easy.

I understand R is more appropriate for difficult statistical 
procedures
(glm and similar), BUT students need to start somewhere..

My specific claim is about the need for a sort of guide in which the
different procedures could be classified (and some redundancies could 
be
deleted...by the way). Is there something similar around? Any project
working on this? Any clue for?

If not, I would suggest starting some kind of easy reference based on
the problem to solve. This could indicate were to look for. Last day I
find in package vcd that a function exist for testing the
goodness-of-fit of a sample to binomial and other distributions..but
this was VERY difficult to locate.

Any way, as usual, any indication will be very useful (spaecially for 
my
students!!!)



Albert Sorribas
Professor of Statistics and Operational Research
Departament de Ci?ncies M?diques B?siques
Universitat de Lleida
Montserrat Roig 2
25008-Lleida (Espanya)
web.udl.es/Biomath/Group



[[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 

Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm

There is a reference sheet here:
   http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/R-refcard.pdf
a function finder here:
   http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/s/finder/find.html
and task views here:
   http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Views/

Also use of RSiteSearch and help.search from within R
can be helpful.

On 4/26/06, Albert Sorribas <albert.sorribas at cmb.udl.es>
wrote:
> This is a generic request concerning were to look for finding
> appropriate information on a precise procedure in R.
> I'm using R for teaching introductory statistics and my students are
> learning how to deal with it. However, I find it difficult to locate
> some of the procedures. For instance, for basic crosstabulation, it is
> obvious that basic functions as table, ftable, and prop.table can be
> used. But there is a CrossTable function that is very useful. This is
> hidden in gmodels and gregmisc, as far as I've been able to explore the
> packages. However, there is no way (unless I sit down to r-help for
> hours) to be sure if there is some other place in which a very useful
> function is hidden for table manipulation (for instance controlling for
> other variables). This is only an example. But there are many more. Were
> to look for CI for proportions? I can find it but it is not easy.
>
> I understand R is more appropriate for difficult statistical procedures
> (glm and similar), BUT students need to start somewhere?.
>
> My specific claim is about the need for a sort of guide in which the
> different procedures could be classified (and some redundancies could be
> deleted?..by the way). Is there something similar around? Any project
> working on this? Any clue for?
>
> If not, I would suggest starting some kind of easy reference based on
> the problem to solve. This could indicate were to look for. Last day I
> find in package vcd that a function exist for testing the
> goodness-of-fit of a sample to binomial and other distributions?.but
> this was VERY difficult to locate.
>
> Any way, as usual, any indication will be very useful (spaecially for my
> students!!!)
>
>
>
> Albert Sorribas
> Professor of Statistics and Operational Research
> Departament de Ci?ncies M?diques B?siques
> Universitat de Lleida
> Montserrat Roig 2
> 25008-Lleida (Espanya)
> web.udl.es/Biomath/Group
>
>
>
>        [[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
>
>