This shows all of the objects that you have stored, including data scalars, vectors, and matrices model outputs etc., along with a summary of the information that is stored in those objects. But RStudio has a very useful “Environment” window available. In the basic R GUI, you can always list the objects you have stored in your environment. I never went back to using the basic R GUI, primarily for the following reasons: 1) RStudio is designed to make it easy to write scripts.Īs soon as you create a new script, the windows within your RStudio session adjust automatically so you can see both your script and the results in your console when you run your syntax.Įven better is the ability to call up potential syntax options while you are writing just by using the tab key.įor example, suppose I am trying to access a variable in a data set called “teachers”, but I haven’t memorized the variable names:Ģ) RStudio makes it convenient to view and interact with the objects stored in your environment. One day though, when working with someone who wanted to use RStudio, I decided to download it and give it a chance.

It seemed overly complicated to download an additional software package for something that already functioned on its own.

Without knowing much about it, I also didn’t want to use RStudio. (Though if I’m being honest, probably 95% or more of my daily tasks could be handled using R Commander.) These kinds of interfaces are notoriously limiting when it comes to advanced analyses and software capabilities. When I first started to learn to use R, I was bound and determined to use the basic R GUI.Īs someone who was already used to programming in SAS, I wasn’t looking for a point-and-click interface like R Commander.

Some common interfaces are the basic R GUI, R Commander (the package “ Rcmdr” that you use on top of the basic R GUI), and RStudio. There are multiple ways to interface with R.

Rstudio