1.3. Working with R

R is a case-sensitive, interpreted language. You can enter commands one at a time at the command prompt (>) or run a set of commands from a source file. There are a wide variety of data types, including vectors, matrices, data frames (similar to datasets), and lists (collections of objects). We’ll discuss each of these data types in chapter 2.

Most functionality is provided through built-in and user-created functions, and all data objects are kept in memory during an interactive session. Basic functions are available by default. Other functions are contained in packages that can be attached to a current session as needed.