Free resources

Learn R for free, at your own pace

Free eBooks, open course material, tutorials and videos. Read online, download a copy, or watch the code being written.

eBooks

Free to read online, or download a PDF or EPUB. Core 01 to 03 go with the free Foundations courses.

Core 01

Introduction to R

Install R and RStudio, variables, data types, packages and getting help: from zero to running code.

Beginner13 chaptersGoes with Course 1

No prerequisites. Start here.

What's inside
  • Introduction to R
  • Install R & RStudio
  • Variables in R
  • Data Types in R
  • Getting Help in R
  • Vectors in R
  • Dataframes in R
  • Factors in R
  • Lists in R
  • Install & Update R Packages
  • RStudio Projects & Data Import
  • Your First Visualization
  • Your First Data Wrangling
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Core 02

Data Wrangling with R

Import flat files and Excel, reshape with tidyr, clean with dplyr, pipes, tibbles, stringr, lubridate and forcats.

BeginnerIntermediate13 chaptersGoes with Course 2

Before this: Core 01, Introduction to R.

What's inside
  • Import Data: Basics
  • Import Data: Advanced
  • Pipe Operator
  • dplyr Basics
  • Joining Tables using dplyr
  • dplyr Helpers
  • tibbles
  • Tidying Data with tidyr
  • Hacking Strings
  • Date & Time: Parsing and Components
  • Date & Time: Arithmetic and Time Zones
  • Categorical Data Fundamentals
  • Factor Manipulation with forcats
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Core 03

Data Visualization with ggplot2

The grammar of graphics: geoms, scales, facets, themes, position and stats tuning, and publication polish.

Intermediate22 chaptersGoes with Course 3

Before this: Core 01 and Core 02.

What's inside
  • Quick Tour
  • Geoms
  • Aesthetics
  • Labels
  • Text Annotations
  • Scatter Plots
  • Line Graphs
  • Bar Plots
  • Box Plots
  • Histograms
  • Modify Axis
  • Modify Legend
  • Legend: Color and Fill
  • Legend: Shape, Size and Alpha
  • Faceting
  • Themes
  • Position & Stats Tuning
  • Scales, Formatting & Color Accessibility
  • Data Reshaping for ggplot2
  • Label Polishing & Wrapping
  • Finale: Publication Polish with patchwork, ggrepel & ggtext
  • Export & Communicate
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Core 04

R, Databases & SQL

Connect R to databases with DBI, translate dplyr into SQL, and write joins and production-grade queries.

Intermediate5 chapters

Before this: Core 02. Already write SQL? Take it straight after Core 02.

What's inside
  • DBI
  • dbplyr
  • SQL Basics
  • SQL Advanced
  • JOINs
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Companion A

Command Line Basics for R Users

Files, permissions, pipes and scripting: enough shell for R users.

Beginner12 chapters

No prerequisites. Read it alongside Core 01.

What's inside
  • Introduction
  • Navigating File System
  • File Management
  • Input/Output
  • Search & Regular Expression
  • Data Transfer
  • sudo
  • File Compression
  • System Info
  • R & the Shell
  • Pipes & Redirection
  • Conclusion
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Companion B

Data Visualization with Base R

The base graphics engine: parameters, multi-panel layouts and production export, with no extra packages.

Intermediate12 chapters

After Core 03, if you need fine control over the plot. Needs R 4.1 or later.

What's inside
  • Why Base R Graphics in 2026?
  • Introduction
  • Title & Axis Labels
  • Scatter Plots
  • Line Graphs
  • Bar Plots
  • Box Plots
  • Histograms
  • Legends
  • Text Annotations
  • Faceting
  • Production Export & Graphical Devices
Read onlinePDFEPUBGitHub
Open courses

Free course material for learning R

Read our open course material at your own pace. It's open source on GitHub.

Read the open coursesSource on GitHub

Want to practise as you read?

Our interactive courses let you write and run R in the browser and get instant feedback. The first three are free and open in December 2026.

See the courses

Tutorials and videos

BlogTutorials and worked examples of data analysis in R.Read the blogYouTubeShort videos that walk through R code step by step.Watch on YouTube

Looking for our R packages?

Regression, descriptive statistics, RFM analysis and more, all free on CRAN.

See our open-source work