Step 3: Install packages
What are packages?
Packages are plug-ins that make R easier to use. R is a smartphone and a package is an app you download from the app store CRAN.
Installation tips
Do not install R software (R, R Studio or packages) on your Suffolk One Drive account or any other cloud service. Make sure you install on your computer’s hard drive.
We recommend that you update your operating system to its latest version. Otherwise you may run into problems installing R software.
Instructions
There are two main ways you can download a package inside R Studio.
At the console
Run the code install.packages("packagename") at the console. For instance, to install the tidyverse, do install.packages("tidyverse").
From the dropdown menu
Open R Studio, go to “Tools” (the dropdown menu), select “Install packages”, and then enter the name of the package you want to install.
For instance, to install tidyverse:
and then click “Install”.
Make sure:
- you don’t change the installation location (leave it to the default)
- you do select “install dependencies” (so that if the package requires other packages you don’t have, those packages are also installed).
Updating packages
From time to time you may need to update a package. Easiest way is to open R Studio, go to “Tools”, then select “Check for package updates”. A dialog box will appear. Select any and all packages you want to update, then click “Install Updates”. It looks something like this:
