http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2011-12.html#matloff ( )

Read this after learning the tidyverse because I wanted to understand base R. To that end, the first twelve or so chapters deliver a thorough overview. The later chapters I suspect are woefully out of date. The coding style is awful, however. I understand print imposes limitations but there were many abbreviated variable and function names that I had to stop and parse what they could mean. I also wasn't able to track down all example source code and data, only some of which appeared to be available on the author's website. ( )

This book IMHO is an excellent starting point for learning R. I'm finding it really useful for beginners like me to learn this new programming language. The book is comprehensive and well-illustrated.

The initial chapters talk about the foundation concepts like vectors and matrices. The examples are simple enough to start with, while the author leaves some room for self-experimentation. The latter chapters describe the advanced capabilities like graphics, debugging and performance tuning.

Needless to say, I'll require a lot of practice to get comfortable thinking in R terms, but this book definitely laid the stepping stone for me. ( )

Great book for thinking in R. I'm not sure I would recommend it as your first source of information on how to use R unless you have a solid background in programming and statistics already. Definitely get your hands on this book once you've gotten a start and need to use R in a way that exploits its advantages and idiosyncrasies. ( )

Good book for learning the basics of R. Look elsewhere for how to do advanced R functionality. ( )